^:mag 


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presented  to  the 

LIBRARY 

UNIVFRSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA  •  SAN  DIF.GO 

by 

FRIENDS  OF  1  HI.  LIBRARY 


MR.    JOHN  C.   ROSE 


v^" 


ui 


CHARLEMAGNE. 


THE    HOME    LIBRARY. 


CHARLEMAGNE 


REV.  EDWARD  L.  CUTTS,  BA., 

HON.   D.D.    rXIV.   OF   THE  SOUTH,    U.S. 

AUTHOR  OF* 

"  COXSTASTINB  THE  GREAT,"    "  ICRNIKG  FOISTS   OF  GEKEBAL,  AND  OF 

ESCLISH   CHUBCH  HISTOBY,"   ETC. 


WITH  MAP. 


PCBLISHED  CKDEB   THE  DIKECIION  OF  THE  TRACT  COMMITTEE. 


LONDON: 

SOCIETY  FOR  PKOMOTIJS'G  CHRISTIAN  KNOWLEDGE ; 
NORTHUMBERLAND  AVENUE,  CHARING  CROSS; 

43,   QUEEN  VICTORIA  STREET  ;  48,  PICCADILLr  ; 
AKD   135,   NORTH  STREET,  BRIGHTON. 

NEW  YORK:  E.  &  J.  B.  YOUNU  AND  CO. 
1882. 


Digitized  by  the  Internet  Archive 

in  2007  with  funding  from 

IVIicrosoft  Corporation 


http://www.archive.org/details/charlemagneOOcuttiala 


PEEFACE. 


The  jDopular  view  of  history  possesses  two  cha- 
racteristics :  first,  it  deals  in  broad  generalizations, 
and  marks  history  out  into  great  Periods ;  secondly, 
it  is  attracted  by  great  individualities,  and  seizes 
on  certain  Men  as  the  representatives  of  the  Periods 
in  which  they  lived. 

Thus  Charlemagne  stands  in  the  popular  view 
as  the  representative  man  of  that  obscure  but  very 
important  period  in  which  three  elements — the 
ancient  civilization  of  the  Empire  of  the  West,  the 
fresh  vigour  of  the  Barbarians  who  overran  it,  and 
the  Church — were  being  fused  into  the  national  life 
of  mediaeval  Europe. 

When  we  come  to  study  the  period  we  find  that 
the  process  of  fusion  was  very  complex,  and  ex- 
tended over  a  long  period ;  and  that  while  we  n^ay 
conveniently  accept  Charlemagne    as   the   central 


VI  PREFACE. 

and  representative  figure  in  this  period  of  history, 
we  must  begin  far  back  to  trace  the  gradual 
changes  which  led  up  to  him ;  and  if  we  are  rightly 
to  appreciate  him  and  his  work  we  must  continue 
to  study  the  history  of  the  period  long  after  he^as 
passed  away  from  it. 

And  so  in  this  book  it  will  be  found  that  the 
actual  life  of  the  Emperor  Karl  occupies  only  a  por- 
tion of  it,  while  it  has  been  thought  that  the  popular 
name  of  "  Charlemagne  "  may  appropriately  stand 
as  the  title  of  what  is  a  sketch  of  his  period. 


CONTENTS, 


FAGB 

Chbonological  Table     xvi 

CHAPTER  I. 

I'HE   FRANKS. 

Description  of  the  Franks — Their  inroads  into  the  empire — 
Their  first  settlement  in  Batavia,  a.d.  355 — Spread  as 
far  as  the  Somme,  a.d,  445  —Franks  in  alliance  with  the 
Romans  1 

CHAPTER  II. 

THE    SETTLEMENT   OF   THE   BARBARIANS. 

Political  condition  of  Gaul  on  the  accession  of  Clovis — The 
kingdom  of  the  Franks  —  The  Roman  province — The 
settlements  of  the  barbarians — The  Bnrgundians — The 
Visigoths — Surrender  of  Southern  Gaul  to  the  A'isigoths        7 

CHAPTER  III. 

ROJIAN   GAUL. 

Social  condition  of  Gaul  on  the  accession  of  Clovis — Appolli- 
naris  Sidonius — A  Gallo-Roman  villa — A  Visigothio 
king — A  Frank  chief — Burgtindian  society  —  Saxon 
pirates  15 


vm  CONTENTS. 


CHAPTEK  IV. 

THE  CONQUESTS  OP  CL0VI8. 

TAOS 

The  battle  of  Soissons  and  conquest  of  the  Boman  province 
— The  marriage  of  Clovis — War  with  the  Alemanni — 
The  battle  of  Tolbiac — The  conversion  of  Clovis — The 
Franks  embrace  Christianity — Conquest  of  the  Burgun- 
dians — Conquest  of  Aquitaine  —  Consolidation  of  the 
Frank  kingdoms — The  Franks  and  the  Latins  separate 
nations — Survey  of  the  Frank  Empire — The  cities — 
Clovis  nominated  consul  and  patrician 29 

CHAPTER  V. 

THE  MEBOVINGIAIf   KINGS. 

Division  of  the  dominions  of  Clovis  among  his  four  sons — 
Eeconquest  of  Burgundy — Death  of  Clodomir  and  murder 
of  his  sons — Conquest  of  Thuringia — Ostrogothic  posses- 
sions in  Gaul  reliuquislied  to  the  Franks — Bavaria  and 
Svyabia  recognize  tlie  Frankish  sovereignty — Death  of 
Theodoric  and  of  his  son — Death  of  Childebert — Clothaire 
sole  king — Private  life  of  the  Frank  kings — Death  of 
Clothaire,  and  division  of  the  kingdom  again  among  his 
four  sons — Their    characters  —  Charibert  —  Guntram — 

.  Anecdote  of  trial  by  combat — Chilperic — Sigebert — 
Marriage  of  Sigebert  and  Brunhilda — Of  Chilperic  and 
Galesvrintha — Fredegonda — "War  between  Sigebert  and 
Chilperic  —  Assassination  of  Sigebert  —  Succeeded  by 
Childebert  11. — The  remarriage  of  Brunhilda — Fate  of 
Merowig — The  pretender  Gundovald       45 

CHAPTER  Vr. 

THE  MEROVINGIAN  KINGS — Continued. 

struggle  between  the  royal  power  and  the  nobles— Death  of 
Chilperic — Succeeded  by  Clothaire  II.— Death  of  Prctex- 
tatus — Death  of  Guntram — Succeeded  by  Childebert  of 
Austrasia — Death  of  Childebert — Succeeded  by  Thcode- 


CONTENTS.  IX 


PAGE 

bert  in  Austrasia,  and  Theodoric  in  Burgundy — Death 
of  Fredegonda — Her  character — Brunhilda  driven  to 
Burgundy — The  two  brothers  unite  against  Clothaire — 
They  go  to  war  with  each  other — Theodebert  slain — 
Tlieodoric  dies — The  Austrasiau  nobles  invite  Clothaire 
— Brunliilda  and  the  Austrasian  princes  slain,  and  the 
whole  of  the  Frank  dominions  united  in  Clothaire  II. — 
Character  of  Brunhilda — Death  of  Clothaire  II. — Suc- 
ceeded by  Dagobert,  who  gives  Aquitaine  to  Charibert — 
Cliaracter  of  Dagobert — He  gives  up  Austrasia  to  his  son 
Sigebert  65 

CHAPTER  VII. 

THE   ECCLESIASTICAL    HISTORY. 

Planting  of  the  Church  in  Gaul — Increase  in  the  reign  of 
Decius — Council  of  Aries — Metropolitan  organization — 
Beginnings  of  the  patriarchal  authority  of  the  Eoman 
see — Work  of  St.  Martin  of  Tours — Eolations  of  the 
British  and  Gallic  Churclies — Csesarius  of  Aries — The 
position  of  the  bishops — Of  the  counts — All  the  clergy 
Latins — Gradual  introduction  of  Franks — The  monastic 
institution  introduced  by  St.  Martin  at  Liguge — By 
Cassian  at  Marseilles — By  Honoratus  at  Lerins — Spreads 
over  Gaul — Revived  by  St.  Benedict — Description  of  a 
monastery  of  monks — Account  of  the  possessions  of  St. 
Eiquier — Monasteries  of  women — Relations  of  the  Church 
of  Gaul  witli  that  of  Saxon  England        85 

CHAPTER  VIII. 

ECCLESIASTICAL   AXTIQCITIES. 

Church  architecture — Sidonius's  description  of  the  new 
church  at  Lyons — A  Church  function — Gregory  of 
Tours's  description  of  the  new  basilica  of  St.  Martin,  and 
of  that  at  Clermont — Paintings  in  churches — Actual  re- 
mains of  churches — Fragments  of  sculpture,  etc. — Mode 
of  election  of  bishops — The  election  of    a  bishop  at 


CONTENTS. 


PAOB 

Bourges — Sidonius's  Bpeech — Illustrationa  of  mode  of 
episcopal  appointments  under  the  Merovingian  kings 
from  Gregory  of  Tours — Rogations — Solitaries  and  re- 
cluses— Religious  widows — Custom  of  sanctuary — Life 
in  the  sanctuaries  of  St.  Martin  of  Tours,  and  St.  Hilary 
of  Poitiers — Belief  in  miracles — Reverence  for  relics — 
Pilgrimnge — Impostures — Energumens Ill 

CHAPTER  IX. 

THE  CONVENT   OP   ST.   BADEGTJNDA    AT   POITIERS. 

Kadegunda  taken  captive — Educated  and  married  by  Clo- 
thaire — Flees  from  court — Is  consecrated  a  deaconess — 
Takes  sanctuary  at  St.  Hilary  of  Poitiers — Founds  a 
monastery  of  women  there — Description  of  the  building 
— Of  the  rules — Venantius  Fortunatus  comes  to  Poitiers 
— His  relations  with  the  convent  of  Radegunda — The 
revolt  of  Chrodielda  and  forty  nuns — They  flee  to  Tours 
— Return  to  Poitiers  and  take  sanctuary  at  St.  Hilary*Ri      139 

CHAPTER  X. 

THE   CELTIC   MISSIONARIES. 

ColumbanuB — His  birth — Mission  to  Qnul — Founds  a  monas- 
tery at  Annegray — Another  at  Luxeuil — Controversy  with 
the  Gallic  Church — Quarrels  with  King  Theodoric  and  is 
banished — Founds  a  monastery  at  Bregenz — Another 
.it  Bobbio — Gallus — Other  Celtic  missionaries  among  the 
Franks — Emmeran     153 

CHAPTER  XI. 

THE   MAYORS  OF   Tllli   TALACK. 

Original  functions  of  the  major-domus — Gradual  growth  of 
his  powers— Pepin  of  Landen — Mayoralty  of  Grimoald — 
Supremacy  of  the  Neustrians  under  Queen  Bathilidis 
and  the  mayor  Erchinoald — Ebroin  elected  to  the  mayor- 
alty—Replaced   by   St.  Ledger — Pepin  of    Ilcristal — 


CONTENTS.  Xl 


PAGE 


Struggle  between  the  mayors  of  Neustria  and  Austrasia 
— Victory  of  Pepin — His  sole  mayoralty — Nominates  his 
grandson  mayor  under  guardianship  of  his  wife  Plectru- 
dis — Charles  is  elected  Duke  of  Austrasia — Struggle  with 
Rainfroy — Obtains  tlie  sole  mayoralty — His  wars — The 
Saracen  invasion  of  France — Defeated  by  Charles  Martel 
at  Poitiers — Seizure  of  Church  estates — His  mayoralty — 
Carloman  and  Pepin  the  Short  succeed  to  the  mayoralty 
— Carloman  resigns  and  becomes  a  monk — Pepin's  sole 
mayoralty — Is  elected  king  165 


CHAPTER  XII. 


Boniface,  his  birth,  etc. — His  missionary  journey  to  Frisia — 
Return  to  England — First  visit  to  Rome — Missionary 
work  in  Germany  —  Second  visit  to  Rome,  and  con- 
secration as  regionary  bishop — His  labours  among  the 
Germans — Third  visit  to  Rome — Receives  the  pall — 
Organizes  the  Churches  of  Bavaria — Founds  sees  and 
monasteries  in  Swabia  and  Thuringia — His  influence  in 
the  reformation  of  the  Gallic  Church — Council  of  Les- 
tines  —  Council  of  Soissons  —  Foundation  of  Fulda — 
Martyrdom  of  Boniface — His  character 183 


CHAPTER  Xni. 

KELATIONS   BETWEEN    THE   MAYORS   OF   THE   PALACE   AND   ROME. 

The  barbarian  occupation  of  Italy — The  last  emperors — Count 
Ricimer — Count  Odoaser — Deposes  Augustulus — Extin- 
guishes the  Western  Empire,  and  reigns  as  patrician — 
Theodoric,  King  of  the  Goths — His  widow,  Amalasuntha, 
marries  Theodatus — Justinian's  ambition— Wars  of  Beli- 
sarius — Invasion  of  the  Lombards — Foundation  of  their 
kingdom  in  North  Italy — History  of  Rome  during  this 
period — Rome  appeals  to  Charles  Martel  for  aid  against 
the  Lombards  197 


Xll  CONTENTS. 


CHAPTER  XIV. 

CHABLES   AND   CABLOMAN  JOINT-KINQS. 

FAOB 

Birth,  etc.,  of  Charles — Partition  of  the  kingdom  between 
Charles  and  Carloman — War  with  Aquitaine — Alliance 
with  the  Lombards — Letter  of  Pope  Stephen  III. — 
Charles  marries  Desiderata — Divorces  her — Death  of 
Carloman       217 


CHAPTER  XV. 

THE  CONQVEST  OF  THE  LOMBARD  KINGDOM. 

Charles's  military  resources — Mode  of  warfare — Intrigues  at 
the  court  of  Pavia — Charles  invades  Lombardy — Disper- 
sion of  the  Lombard  forces — Siege  of  Pavia — Romance 
description  of  Charles — He  spends  Easter  at  Rome — 
Pavia  surrenders — Charles  is  crowned  King  of  the  Lom- 
bards —  Greco-Italian  conspiracy  —  Campaign  against 
Beneventum  —  Submission  of  the  duke  —  Invasion  of 
Bavaria — Surrender  of  the  duke — Incorporation  of  Ba- 
varia into  the  Frank  kingdom — Revolt  of  Duke  of  Bene- 
ventum— Campaign  against  him — Conquest  of  Libumia 
from  the  Greeks        225 

CHAPTER  XVI. 

THE  SAXON   WAS. 

Description  of  Saxony — Campaign  of  a.d.  772 — Destruction 
of  the  Irminsul— Revolt  of  774,  and  subsequent  cam- 
paign— Revolt  of  776,  and  campaign— The  Champ  de 
Mai  held  at  Paderbom — Witikind's  raid  into  Francia,  778 
— Revolt  of  782 — Defeat  of  Frank  troops — Massacre  of 
the  revolters — The  great  rebellion  of  783 — The  Saxons 
fight  two  pitched  battles  and  are  defeated — Charles  com- 
pletes their  subjugation  in  a  winter  campaign — Severe 
laws — Submission  and  baptism  of  Witikind       242 


CONTENTS.  XIU 


CHAPTER  XVII. 

THE  SPASISH  COSQUEST. 

PAGE 

Saracen  envoys  seek  tlie  assistance  of  Charles  and  oflEer  him 
their  allegiance — He  marches  into  Spain — Doubtful  suc- 
cesses— Retires  to  Aquitaine — Defeat  of  his  rearguard  at 
Roncevaux—  Organization  of  the  kingdoms  of  Aquitaine 
and  Italy — Alliance  with  Irene     255 

CHAPTER  XVIII. 

THE   CHAPTER  OP  MISFORTUNES. 

The  Huns  invade  the  empire,  and  are  defeated — Charles 
marches  against  the  Huns  — The  results  of  the  campaign 
— Conspiracy  against  Charles — Count  Theodoric  and  his 
troops  massacred  by  the  Saxons — Revolt  of  Grimoald — 
The  Saracens  invade  Aquitaine  —  Defeated  by  Count 
William  of  Toulouse  261 

CHAPTER  XIX. 

CONCLrSIOX  OF   THE   WARS   OF   CONQUEST. 

The  second  period  of  the  Saxon  war — Deportation  of  Saxons 
— Planting  of  foreign  colonies  among  them — Second 
period  of  the  Saracen  war — The  definitive  conquest  of 
the  Spanish  march — Pepin  defeats  the  Huns,  captures 
the  "  Ring,"  and  settles  the  country         268 

CHAPTER  XX. 

CHARLES     EMPEROR. 

Death  of  Pope  Adrian — Election  of  Leo  III. — Charles's  letter 
to  him — Revolt  against  Leo — He  flees  to  Charles — 
Is  escorted  back  to  Rome — The  Norman  pirates — 
Charles  visits  Rome — Holds  inquiry  into  accusations 
against  the  pope — The  Christmas  of  800  in  St.  Peter's — 
Coronation  of  Charles  as  emperor  —  Three  different 
accoTints  of  the  event — Significance  of  the  event  . . .    272 


XIV  CONTENTS. 


CHAPTER  XXL 

Charles's  personal  character  akd  domestic  life. 

PAOH 

His  alliances — Anecdote  of  his  reception  of  ambassadors — His 
buildings — His  wives  and  cliildren — Education  of  his 
children — His  affection  for  them — Loved  the  resort  of 
foreigners  to  his  court — Description  of  his  person  and 
habits — His  costume — His  habits  at  table — His  learning 
— His  devotion         290 

CHAPTER  XXn. 

the  revival  op  leakxing. 
The  decay  of  classical  learning — The  character  of  the  monas- 
tic schools — Learning  valued  by  the  Frank  sovereigns — 
Charles  invites  Paul  the  Deacon  to  his  court — The 
schools  of  York — Its  library — Charles  invites  Alcuin  to 
liis  court — The  literary  courtiers — The  Chartulary  of  787 
— The  new  Homilary — The  popular  schools — Alcuin 
returns  to  the  abbacy  of  St.  Martin  at  Tours — Is  suc- 
ceeded in  the  Palatine  school  by  Clement  of  teland — 
Charles's  encouragement  of  the  Palatine  scholars — Death 
of  Alcuin — His  character — Charles's  literary  character        306 

CHAPTER  XXIIL 

the   KCCLESIASTICAL   WORK   OF   CHARLES. 

Charles's  ecclesiastical  policy — His  Church  patronage — Anec- 
dotes—Policy  towards  the  Roman  See — The  Iconoclastic 
controversy — The  Caroline  Books — The  theological  tone 
of  the  age — The  Adoptionist  controversy — The  Council 
of  Frankfort— The  history  of  the  J'tZiogwe  323 

CHAPTER  XXIV. 

THE    END. 

Policy  of  the  emperor — Growing  infirmities  of  Charles — He 
associates  Louis  witli  himself  in  the  empire — Dies  a.d. 
814— His  burial— Character  337 

Chronology  of  the  Reign  of  Charles       345 


Louduit:  PuMishi'd  Vrdie  Soci 


PromotmE  Christian  Knowledge. 


CHARLEMAGNE. 


CHAPTER  I. 

THE  FRANKS. 

Description  of  the  Franks — Their  inroads  into  the  empire — 
Their  first  settlement  in  Batavia,  a.d.  355 — Spread  as  far  as 
the  Somme,  a.p.  445  —Franks  in  alliance  with  the  Romans. 

It  was  in  tlie  troubled  reign  of  Gordian  that  the 
Franks  made  their  first  inroad  into  the  Roman 
Empire :  a  horde  of  Teutonic  giants,  with  light 
complexions,  fair  hair,  and  "  green  "  eyes ;  clothed  in 
the  spoils  of  the  bear,  the  urus,  the  boar,  and  the 
wolf,  they  looked  at  a  distance  like  a  herd  of  wild 
beasts.  Each  man  bore  in  his  right  hand  a  long 
lance,  in  the  left  a  buckler,  in  his  girdle  a  two- 
edged  axe,  which  was  their  peculiar  weapon,  and 
which  they  either  used  in  hand-to-hand  encounters, 
or  hurled  from  a  distance  with  unerring  precision. 
In  migrating  to  new  homes  they  carried  their  wives 
and  children,  and  rude  household  goods,  in  rough 

B 


CHARLEMAGNE. 


waggons  with  great  wheels  of  solid  wood,  drawn  by 
oxen.  The  waggons,  ranged  in  a  circle,  formed  a 
protection  to  their  camp  when  needful. 

In  battle,  according  to  the  ancient  German 
custom,  they  formed  themselves  into  a  wedge.  At 
the  point  of  it  they  placed  chosen  warriors ;  each 
chief  was  surrounded  by  the  men  of  his  own 
family.  The  formidable  phalanx  advanced  with 
impetuosity,  yet  with  a  measured  movement  which 
carefully  preserved  its  formation ;  presenting  to  the 
foe  the  vision  of  a  forest  of  lances,  a  crowd  of  half- 
naked  bodies,  half-clad  in  the  skins  of  wild  beasts. 
A  cloud  of  cavalry  similarly  clad  and  armed 
covered  the  wings  of  the  phalanx.  In  charging 
they  uttered  a  temble  war-cry,  made  more  shrill 
and  dissonant  by  the  application  of  the  edge  of  the 
buckler  to  the  mouth.  In  marching  they  sang  a 
war-song,  in  which  they  exulted  over  "  slaughtered 
foes,  given  for  food  to  the  wild  beasts,  and  weeping 
women ;  and  welcomed  death  in  battle  as  the  natural 
end  of  life,  which  brave  men  meet  with  a  smile."  * 

Thus  they  emerged  from  the  German  forests, 
crossed  the  Rhine  upon  huge  rafts  of  timber,  and 
burst  upon  the  terrified  inhabitants  of  the  peaceful 
and  prosperous  province  of  Gaul ;  devastating  the 
peaceful  country,  burning  villas,  driving  off  flocks 
and  herds,  the  country  people 'fleeing  before  them. 
Sometimes  they  would  pass  in  sight  of  the  towns, 
where  the  gates  were  closed  and  the  walls  manned 
by  the  citizen  militia,  and  leave  them  unattacked ; 
*  ChatentibriaTid,  "  Lcs  Martyrs,"  cliap.  vi. 


THE  FRANKS. 


sometimes,  in  more  formidable  numbers,  they  "woiild 
storm  the  towns,  and  carry  off  the  citizens  as  slaves 
and  their  wealth  as  booty. 

Again  and  again,  during  two  centuries,  attracted 
by  the  rich  prey  which  the  towns  and  villas  of  the 
wealthy  provincials  offered,  they  repeated  their 
raids,  and  again  and  again  the  Imperial  legions 
defeated  them  with  great  slaughter,  and  chased  the 
survivors  out  of  the  empire.  Aurelian  defeated 
them  at  Mayence  in  A.D.  242,  and  drove  them 
into  the  swamps  of  Holland.  Twelve  years  after 
another  inroad  was  punished  by  the  generals  of 
GalLienus.  In  A.D.  276  they  had  gained  possession  of 
sixty  Gallic  cities,  from  which  Probus  drove  them, 
and,  it  is  said,  killed  400,000  of  them  and  their 
allies.  Constantius  Chlorus,  in  A.D.  292,  di'ove  the 
Salian  *  Franks  out  of  the  Batavian  Islands  of  the 
Low^er  Rhine.  His  great  son  Constantine  defeated 
them  in  the  early  years  of  his  reign  with  great 
slaughter,  carried  off  two  of  their  kings  and 
thousands  of  their  warriors  in  triumph  to  his 
capital  of  Treves,  and  there,  in  the  games  in  honour 
of  his  victory,  the  famous  Ludi  Francici,  gave 
them  to  the  lions  in  the  amphitheatre. 

The  year  A.D.   355  is  a  prominent  date  in  the 

*  The  origin  of  the  napaes  Salian  and  Eipnariau,  by  which  the 
two  great  divisions  of  the  Franks  are  known  in  history,  is  obscure. 
Salian,  perhaps,  means  those  who  dwelt  along  the  river  Yssel,  or 
Sal :  the  Sicambrian  tribe  seems  to  bo  the  leading  tribe  of  this 
division.  The  name  Ripuarii,  or  Eiparii,  it  may  be  suggested 
with  greater  probability,  denoted  those  who  lived  on  the  hank  of 
the  Rhine.— Perry,  "  The  Franks." 


CHARLEMAGNE. 


history.  In  that  year  there  was  a  great  and 
general  movement  of  the  Franks  along  the  whole 
frontier  from  Strasburg  to  the  sea,  and  apparently 
they  endeavoured  to  establish  themselves  all  along 
the  left  bank  of  the  river.  The  Salians  then  again 
seized  Batavia,  and  spread  into  Toxandria,  where 
they  firmly  established  themselves.  This  was  their 
first  permanent  settlement  on  the  left  bank  of  the 
'Slhine,  andr£He"Ioundation  oflhilsingdom'o  (^vis. 
The  Emperor  3*uiran  attacked  them  in  a.d.  858, 
but  allowed  them  to  retain  their  lands  on  condition 
of  acknowledging  themselves  subjects  of  the  empire. 
For  the  most  part  they  continued  faithful  allies, 
and  formed  a  useful  barrier  against  the  barbarians 
beyond  thein.  At  this  period  bodies  of  Frank 
auxiliaries  were  taken  into  the  Imperial  service, 
in  which  some  of  their  chiefs  rose  to  high  rank  and 
great  influence. 

The  Franks  gradually  spread  further  and  further, 
until,  at  the  beginning  of  the  fifth  century,  we  find 
them  occupying  the  left  bank  of  the  Rhine  as  far  as 
Tournai,  which  then  became  the  chief  town  of  the 
Salian  Franks.  The  Ripuarians,  meanwhile,  had 
been  also  extending  themselves  downwards  from 
Andemach,  along  the  middle  Rhine,  and  they  gained 
Cologne  about  the  same  time  that  their  Salian 
brothers  reached  Tournai. 

About  the  year  A.D.  430,  when  the  barbarians 
were  breaking  into  the  empire  on  every  side,  we 
come  to  the  third  stage  in  the  westward  progress  of 
the  Salian  Franks.     The  legendary  histories  assign 


THE   FRANKS. 


the  leadership  in  the  conquests  of  this  period  to  the 
fabulous  King  Pharamond,  but  there  is  no  evidence 
of  the  existence  of  such  a  person.  The  conquest  of 
Cambrai  by  Clodion,  in  A.D.  445,  is  a  well-established 
historical  fact,  and  the  conquest  of  the  country  as 
far  as  the  river  Somme;  for  though  the  Franks 
suffered  a  surprise  and  defeat  at  the  hands  of  Aetius 
and  Majorian,  yet  at  the  end  of  the  war  they  re- 
tained possession  of  their  conquests.  It  is  probable 
that  this  part  of  the  country  was  then  comparatively 
desolate,  and  that  its  colonization  by  the  Franks  did 
not  dispossess  any  considerable  native  population. 

Clodion  died  in  a.d.  448.  Attila  appeared  in 
Gaul  in  a.d.  450.  The  kingship  of  the  Salian 
Franks  was  disputed  by  two  rival  princes.  The 
legends  call  one  Merov?eus.  He  appealed  to  Aetius, 
the  Roman  Prefect,  for  countenance;  his  rival  ap- 
pealed to  Attila.  In  the  great  battle  of  Chalons, 
Merovseus  and  his  warriors  were  among  the  bar- 
barian allies  whom  Aetius  and  the  Visigothic  Theo- 
doric  brought  into  the  field ;  the  rival  faction  of  the 
Salian  Franks  was  among  the  allies  of  the  Huns. 
The  fate  of  the  great  battle,  in  giving  victory  to  the 
Roman,  gave  to  Merovseus  the  kingship  of  the 
Salian  Franks. 

His  son  Childeric,  who  succeeded  him,  was  a  licen- 
tious youth,  who,  giving  way  to  unbridled  passion, 
and  dishonourincr  the  daughters  of  his  chiefs,*  was 
driven  into  exile.  It  is  a  remarkable  illustration  of 
the  relations  between  the  Romans  and  the  Franks, 
•  Gregory  of  Tovirs,  "  Historia  Franoorum,"  Lib.  ii.  12. 


6  CHARLEMAGNE. 


that  wlien  the  Franks  thus  drove  away  their  here- 
ditary chief,  they  chose  iEgidius,  the  Prefect  of  Gaul, 
as  their  king. 

At  the  end  of  eight  years,  Cliilderic's  friends  had 
prepared  the  way  for  his  return  from  exile,  and  he 
was  restored  to  his  sovereignty.  He  had  spent  his 
years  of  exile  at  the  court  of  the  King  of  Thuringia. 
The  grateful  Frank  seems  to  have  repaid  the  hos- 
pitality of  his  royal  host  by  gaining  the  aflfections 
of  his  queen,  Basine ;  for,  on  his  return  from  exile, 
Basine  fled  and  followed  him.  He  married  her,  and 
Clovis  was  their  son.  The  remaining  fifteen  years 
of  the  reign  of  Childeric  he  was  in  alliance  with 
-^gidius,  in  defence  of  Northern  and  Central  Gaul, 
against  the  growing  power  of  the  Visigoths  of  Spain 
and  Aquitaine. 


(    7    ) 


CHAPTER  II. 

THE  SETTLEMENT  OF  THE  BARBAETANS. 

Political  condition  of  Gaul  on  the  accession  of  Clovis — The  king- 
dom of  the  Franks— The  Roman  province— The  settlements 
of  the  barbarians — The  Burgundians — The  Visigoths— Sur- 
render of  Southern  Gaul  to  the  Visigoths. 

Before  we  enter  upon  the  eventful  reign  of  Clovis, 
it  will  be  convenient  to  consider  the  condition  of 
Gaul  before  the  commencement  of  his  conquests. 
It  was  divided  into  four,  if  not  five,  independent 
states.  First,  the  Frank  dominions ;  they  were 
divided  into  the  Salian  and  Ripuarian  kingdoms, 
and  these  again  subdividedaccordingJjOthe  Teutonic 
custom  of  dividing  the  possessiaBa..Qf-a.-fatl;^er  n,rx}f^r\g, 
all  his  sons ;  HSut  the  divisions,  being  all  united  in 
one  general  annual  assembly  of  the  whole  people, 
and  usually  acting  together  in  great  undertakings 
of  general  interest,  may  be  regarded  as  one  state. 
Northern  Gaul,  from  the  Somme  westward  to  the 
Atlantic,  from  the  Channel  southward  to  the  Loire, 
was  still  nominally  a  portion  of  the  Roman  Empire. 
It  is  a  question  whether  the  Armoricans  (Bretagne), 


8  CHAHLEMAGNE. 


secluded  in  their  hills  and  forests,  and  governed 
patriarchaUy  by  their  chiefs,  continued  to  regard 
the  Prefect  of  Gaul  as  the  head  of  their  government ; 
but,  at  least,  no  acts  of  hostility  had  clearly  defined 
them  as  rebels  to  the  empire.  Syagrius,  the  Prefect 
of  Gaul,  was  of  one  of  the  great  families  of  the 
province;  his  father  ^gidius,  and  his  grandfather 
Aetius,  had  filled  the  same  high  office  before  him. 
Perhaps  a  more  ambitious  man  might  have  sought 
to  make  of  this  remnant  of  the  Gallic  province  what 
it  is  sometimes  called  by  historians,  the  kingdom  of 
Syagrius. 

The  whole  of  Central  Gaul  was  divided  between 
the  Burffundians  and  the  Visigoths.  The  Visigoths 
were  bounded  on  the  side  of  Roman  Gaul  by  the 
river  Loire,  and  on  the  east  by  the  Rhone.  The 
Burgundians  were  bounded  on  the  side  of  Roman 
Gaul  by  the  river  Marne,  and  on  the  west  by  the 
Rhone.  The  south  of  Gaul,  where  the  Greeks  had 
planted  their  language  and  civilization,  which  still 
lingered  in  Marseilles  and  Aries,  had  only  lately 
been  abandoned  by  Odoacer  and  seized  by  Euric. 
We  should  entirely  misimderstand  the  condition  of 
things  if  we  supposed  that  the  Visigoths  in  the 
south-west  and  the  Burgundians  in  the  south-east 
had  conquered  the  people  of  these  districts,  seized 
upon  their  possessions,  and  substituted  their  own 
government,  laws,  and  institutions,  for  those  of 
the  empire.  The  actual  process  by  which  these 
barbarians  obtained  their  seats  in  Gaul,  and  the 
conditions  under  which  they  held  them,  are  very 


THE  SETTLEMENT  OP  THE  BARBARIANS.  9 


curious,  very  interesting,  and  must  be  carefully 
considered,  if  the  whole  history  of  the  subsequent^ 
period  is  to  be  at  all  intelligible. 

The  empire  had  long  ago  found  out  its  weakness, 
in  the  absence  of  a  warlike  population  from  which' 
armies  could  be  drawn  numerous  enough  and  brave 
enough  to  defend  the  frontiers  against  the  in- 
creasing pressure  of  the  barbarians,  and  had  begun 
to  adopt  the  policy  of  enlisting  the  barbarians  as 
allies  against  the  barbarians.  This  was  done  in 
two  ways.  Bodies  of  barbarians — Goths,  Vandals, 
Franks — were  enlisted  into  the  armies  as  auxiliary 
troops,  remaining  under  the  command  of  their  own 
patriarchal  princes  and  chiefs,  but  receiving  more 
or  less  of  the  Roman  arms  and  discipline.  The  com- 
manders of  these  bodies  of  mercenaries  held  a  two- 
fold character.  They  were  usually  the  hereditary 
chiefs  of  their  soldiers,  and  exercised  among  them 
not  merely  the  authority  of  a  military  commander, 
but  the  rule  of  a  native  prince.  To  the  empire 
they  were  generals  in  the  army,  Romans  in  lan- 
guage and  civilization,  holding  a  distinguished  social 
position  in  right  of  their  princely  birth,  and  often 
attaining  to  high  office  and  great  influence  in  the 
state.  The  Imperial  history  of  these  centuries 
supplies  a  long  list  of  Goths  and  Franks,  who 
became  so  powerful  in  troublous  times  as  to  hold 
the  fate  of  the  empire  in  their  hands ;  and  in  the 
last  days  of  the  Western  Empire,  their  barbarian 
armies,  like  the  Pretorians  of  one  earlier  period  and 
the  Legions  of  another,  made  and  unmade  emperors. 


10  CHARLEMAGNE. 


Another  way  in  which  the  policy  of  the  empire 
had  sought  to  use  the  valour  of  the  barbarians  as  a 
defence,  was  by  planting  colonies  of  them  here  and 
there  along  the  frontiers,  where  they  settled  and 
cultivated  the  soil,  and  became  partially  civilized, 
and  were  ready  to  defend  their  own  possessions ; 
and  so  acted  as  bulwarks  of  the  empire  generally 
against  the  inroads  of  barbarians  from  without. 
AureHan,  at  the  same  time  that  he  abandoned  the 
Dacian  territory  beyond  the  Danube,  planted  a 
colony  of  Dacians  on  the  hither  side  of  the  boundary 
river,  in-  Mcesia.  Probus  planted  colonies  of  the 
Franks  and  other  German  tribes  along  the  Rhine 
and  the  Danube.  Constantine  the  Great  pursued 
the  policy  of  seeking  to  conciliate,  to  civilize — in  a 
word,  to  Romanize — the  barbarians  who  were  in 
contact  with  the  empire.  Valens  allowed  the  Visi- 
goths to  cross  the  Danube,  and  assigned  them  lands 
in  Thrace. 

These  facts  must  be  borne  carefully  in  mind  in 
reading  the  history  of  the  disiniption  of  the  Western 
Empire.  They  explain  the  attitude  of  the  barbarians 
towards  the  empire,  and  the  relations  of  the  empire 
with  the  barbarians  at  this  period.  They  explain 
how  it  comes  to  pass  that  armies  of  barbarians, 
obeying  no  one  but  their  own  cliiefs,  receive  the 
Imperial  pay,  and  control  their  nominal  master. 
They  explain  how  whole  tribes  of  barbarians  come 
to  be  peacefully  settled,  either  in  one  body  on  the 
frontiers,  or  scattered  over  a  province  among  the 
Latin  inhabitants.     And,  lastly,  they  explain  how 


THE  SETTLEMENT  OF   THE  BAEBARIANS.  11 

tribes  of  barbarians  who  had  invaded  the  empire 
and  effected  forcible  settlements,  were  dealt  with  on 
the  fiction  that  they  were  military  colonists  and 
allies  of  the  emperor. 

These  settlements  were  the  more  easily  arranged 
because  the  barbarians,  accustomed  to  the  free  life 
of  the  field  and  forest,  did  not  care  to  inhabit  the 
towns  and  cities ;  all  they  desired  was  to  settle  in 
the  open  country.  On  the  other  hand,  the  Roman 
population  was  chiefly  concentrated  in  the  towns 
and  cities,  while  the  lands  of  the  Imperial  treasury, 
lands  still  unreclaimed,  and  perhaps  sometimes  the 
estates  of  great  proprietors  who  had  been  slain, 
aflforded  ample  means  of  satisfying  the  barbarians. 

The  settlement  of  the  barbarians  in  Gaul  was 
partly  the  result  of  one  and  partly  of  the  other  of 
these  processes. 

"WTien  Jovinus  (a.d.  411)  usurped  the  purple,  he 
engaged  certain  tribes  of  Burgundians  in  his  service, 
and  ceded  to  them  settlements  in  the  district  known 
as  the  first,  or  Upper  Germany  ;  and  on  the  defeat 
and  death  of  the  usurper,  Honorius,  the  lawful 
emperor,  found  it  expedient  to  confirm  the  conces- 
sion made  to  the  Burgundians.  They  were  a  race 
of  comparatively  mild  disposition,  who  took  quiet 
possession  of  the  lands  allotted  to  them,  without 
inflicting  wanton  injury  upon  the  people  among 
whom  they  were  allocated;  and  they  gradually 
spread  over  the  whole  of  the  two  provinces  watered 
by  the  Saone  and  the  Rhone,  which  still  retain  the 
national  appellation  of  Burgundy. 


12  CHARLEMAGNE. 


The  history  of  the  Visigothic  settlement  in  Gaul 
is  a  longer  and  more  interesting  story,  and  illus- 
trates very  fully  all  the  aspects  of  the  relations  of 
the  barbarians  and  the  empire.  The  Visigoths 
had  already,  in  pursuance  of  the  policy  of  Constan- 
tinejbeen  Christianized  and  partially  civilized,  while 
still  in  their  seats  beyond  the  Danube,  when,  in  the 
year  A.D.  376,  pressed  by  the  migration  of  the  Huns 
from  their  Scythian  deserts,  they  obtained  leave  of 
Valens  to  seek  refuge  within  the  empire.  A  district 
was  assigned  them  in  Thrace,  where  large  tracts  of 
fertile  and  uncultivated  land  afforded  them  desirable 
possessions.  They  still  retained  their  national  lan- 
guage and  customs,  and  the  hereditary  chiefs  of 
their  tribes  and  families  still  ruled  them  in  peace 
and  commanded  them  in  war.  In  return,  they  sup- 
plied a  body  of  40,000  auxiliaries  for  the  service  of 
the  state. 

At  the  beginning  of  the  reign  of  Honorius.Alarin 
was  the  commander  of  the  Gothic  auxiliaries ;  a 
prince  of  one  of  the  noblest  Gothic  families,  a 
warrior  who  had  learned  the  art  of  war  under  the 
great  Theodosius.  Refused  the  post  to  which  he 
thought  himself  entitled,  of  the  command  of  the 
Roman  armies,  he  revolted  with  his  Gothic  con- 
tingent; and  the  whole  of  the  Goths  of  Thrace 
broke  out  in  rebellion  and  swelled  his  forces.  It 
is  not  our  business  here  to  follow  his  history  in 
detail.  Every  one  knows  how  he  invaded  Italy, 
thrice  appeared  before  the  walls  of  Rome,  and  the 
third  time  gave  it  up  to  sack  and  pillage.     After 


THE  SETTLEMENT  OF  THE  BAEBAEUNS.  13 

his  death  his  brother  Adolph  succeeded  him  as  King 
of  the  Goths ;  and,  frankly  admitting  that  it  "was 
not  possible  for  the  Goths  to  undertake  the  task  of 
administering  the  Roman  world,  he  contented  him- 
self with  obtaining  large  concessions  from  Honorius ; 
married  the  emperor's  sister,  Placidia,  who  was 
his  captive;  resumed  the  title  and  attitude  of  an 
Imperial  general;  and  became  one  of  the  most 
powerful  supporters  of  the  Imperial  throne.  He 
suppressed  the  usurpers  Jovinus  and  Sebastian  in 
Gaul ;  he  marched  against  the  mixed  multitude  of 
Suevi,  Vandals,  and  Alans,  who  had  invaded  Spain. 
Here  he  was  assassinated.  But  his  successor, 
Wallia,  completed  the  defeat  of  the  barbarians,  and 
restored  Spain  to  the  obedience  of  Honorius.  He 
and  his  warriors  were  rewarded  by  the  grant  of 
possessions  in  Aquitaine — the  country  between 
the  Loire,  the  ocean,  and  the  Pyrenees,  whose  in- 
habitants were  celebrated  among  the  Gauls  for 
their  wealth,  their  learning,  and  the  politeness  of 
their  manners;  and  the  successors  of  Alaric  fixed 
their  royal  residence  at  Thoulouse. 

When  Odoacer,  who  had  long  been  vii-tual  master 
of  ItalyVand  had  made  and  unmade  its  emperors, 
at  length  deposed  Augustulus  (a.d.  476),  and,  under 
the  decent  pretext  of  being  the  representative  of 
the  Eastern  emperor,  exercised  openly  the  power 
he  had  long  virtually  possessed,  he  sought  to 
secure  the  new  state  of  things  by  friendly  arrange- 
ment with  the  principal  barbarians,  who  were  also 
interested   in   the    fate   of   the    empire ;    he   con- 


14  CHARLEMAGNE. 


>e^ 


ciliated  the  friendship  and  support  of  Euric,  king 
of  the  Visigoths,  by  abandoning  to  him  the  Roman 
possessions  in  the  south  of  Gaul.  Aries  and  Mar- 
seilles surrendered  to  the  arms  of  Euric.  Auvergne, 
where  Vercingetorix  had  made  the  last  stand 
against  the  conquests  of  Csesar,  strong  in  its  volcanic 
peaks  and  wooded  defiles,  and  in  the  spirit  of  its 
inhabitants,  made  a  brave  resistance,  but  was  at 
length  obliged  to  submit  to  the  Gothic  rule.  Euric 
had  been  fifteen  years  the  ruler  of  the  Visigoths, 
and  had  still  another  seven  years  to  rule,  when 
(a.d.  481)  the  death  of  Childeric  the  Frank  left  the 
boy  Clovis,  fourteen  years  of  age,  as  his  successor. 


^^^<{Uf\t^(\ 


(     15     ) 


CHAPTER   III 

ROMAN   GAUL. 

Social  condition  of  Gaul  on  the  accession  of  Clovis — Appollinaris 
Sidoniiis — A  Gallo-Roman  villa — A  Visigothic  king — A  Frank 
chief — Burgundian  society — Saxon  pirates. 

A  SURVEY  of  the  social  condition  of  the  flourishing 
province  of  Gaul,  before  the  beginning  of  the  bar- 
barian settlements  in  it,  would  have  revealed  the 
following  general  characteristics.  '  In  the  cities  of 
the  south  of  Gaul,  the  refined  civilization  which  the 
Greeks  had  planted  there  still  pervaded  the  lan- 
guage, the  dress,  the  habits  of  the  people.  In  the 
north  of  Gaul  the  Roman  type  of  civilization  had 
formed  its  institutions,  language,  and  habits,  and 
had  not  yet  in  this  northern  province  deteriorated 
to  such  a  level  of  vicious  enervation  as  in  Italy 
itself  Aquitania  was  specially  noted  among  the 
Gauls  for  its  high  degree  of  elegant  refinement. 

In  the  last  chapter  we  have  seen  how  the  Bur- 
gundian s  obtained  settlements  in  the  country  east 
of  the  Rhone,  the  Visigoths  in  Aquitaine  and  the 


16  CHAELEMAGNE. 


south,  and  how  the  Franks  gradually  spread  from 
the  Rhone  to  the  Somme,  leaving  North-Central  Gaul 
still  under  the  government  of  Syagrius.  It  happens 
that  just  at  this  period  of  the  history — a  period 
otherwise  very  obscure — we  are  so  fortunate  as  to 
have  one  contemporary  writer,  who  for  the  period 
embraced  by  his  history,  viz.  the  period  of  these 
barbarian  settlements,  and  for  the  part  of  the 
country  over  which  his  personal  knowledge  ex- 
tended, viz.  the  south  and  west  of  Gaul,  Auvergne 
and  Aquitaine,  gives  us  a  series  of  pictures  of 
society  so  vivid  as  to  place  us  in  the  very  presence 
of  the  men  and  events  among  which  he  lived. 

His  own  personal  history  may  first  be  sketched, 
as  in  itself  a  valuable  illustration  of  the  history  of 
the  time.  Caius  SoUius  Appollinaris  Sidonius  was 
of  one  of  the  greatest  of  the  Gallo-Roman  families 
of  Auvergne.  He  tells  us*  that  his  father,  father-in- 
law,  grandfather,  and  great-grandfather  had  held 
office  as  Prefects  of  Gaul  and  of  the  Pretorium,  and 
Masters  of  the  Palace  and  of  the  Soldiers ;  that  is, 
the  highest  offices  of  the  state.  At  the  age  of 
twenty  he  married  the  daughter  of  Avitus,  the  head 
of  another  of  the  greatest  of  the  noble  families  of 
Gaul.  Six  years  after  this  marriage  Avitus  was 
raised  to  the  Imperial  throne  by  Ricimer.  Sidonius 
followed  his  Imperial  father-in-law  to  Rome,  and 
there  pronounced  the  customary  poetical  pane- 
gyric, on  the  first  day  of  the  following  year,  in 
presence  of  the  emperor  and  the  senate;  and  in 
*  Lib.  i.  Ep.  3. 


ROMAN   GAUL.  17 


recognition  of  his  literary  ability  a  bronze  statue 
■was  decreed  to  the  young  orator  in  the  Forum  of 
Trajan.  Wlien  Avitus  was  dethroned  by  Ricimer, 
part  of  Gaul  rose  in  revolt,  and  Sidonius  was  involved 
in  the  outbreak.  He  was,  however,  pardoned  by  the 
virtuous  Majorian,  pronounced  at  Lyons  the  poetical 
eulogium  of  the  magnanimous  emperor,  was  raised 
to  the  dignity  of  count,  and  held  several  employ- 
ments under  him.  When  Majorian  in  turn  was 
poisoned  by  Ricimer,  Sidonius  retired  to  his  country 
seat  of  Avitacum,  in  Auvergne,  during  the  short 
reign  of  Severus.  But  when  Severus  had  been  also 
poisoned,  and  Anthemius  had  been  placed  on  the 
throne,  the  new  emperor  sent  for  Sidonius  and 
made  him  chief  of  the  senate,  prefect  of  the  city, 
and  patrician,  and  for  the  third  time  he  pronounced 
the  poetical  eulogy  of  an  emperor,  on  the  first  day 
of  the  year  468.  At  the  end  of  471  he  quitted  the 
court,  and  retired  to  his  estate  at  Avitacum.  The 
see  of  Clermont  becoming  vacant,  the  clergy  and  peo- 
ple elected  their  distinguished  neighbour  as  their 
bishop,*  and  we  find  him  in  friendly  correspondence 

*  The  prelates  of  the  fifth  century,  at  least  ia  the  most  consider- 
able cities,  were  frequently  men  of  the  highest  rank,  and  of  great 
wealth,  and  often  men  who  had  not  been  trained  up  as  priests,  but 
had  filled  the  first  ofiices  in  the  civil  service  of  the  empire.  Such 
at  this  time  were,  besides  Sidonius,  Patiens  of  Lyons,  Avitus  of 
Vienne,  and  Appollinaris  of  Valence,  the  last  two  grandsons  of  an 
emperor.  The  emperor  Avitus,  when  deposed,  accepted  a  bishopric, 
which  he  was  not  permitted  long  to  enjoy.  Glycerins,  when  deposed, 
accepted  the  bishopric  of  Salona : — it  is  uncertain  whether  or  not 
he  is  identical  with  the  Glycerins  who  shortly  afterwards  was  Arch- 
bishop of  Eheims. 

C 


18  CHARLEMAGNE. 


with  the  most  noted  of  the  Gallic  bishops — Lupus 
of  Troves,  Remigius  of  Rheims,  Patiens  of  Lyons, 
and  others.  It  was  while  Sidonius  Avas  their  bishop 
that  Auvergne  was  invaded  by  Euric  the  Visigoth 
(a.d.  474),  and  Clermont  sustained  a  siege ;  his 
brother-in-law  Ecdicius,  the  son  of  the  late  Emperor 
Avitus,  and  the  natural  leader  of  the  Auvergnats, 
was  at  the  head  of  the  patriotic  defence,  and  the 
bishop,  no  doubt,  shared  in  it.  The  consequence 
was  that  when  Euric  obtained  the  mastery  Sido- 
nius was  exiled.  But  at  the  end  of  a  year  he  was 
allowed  to  return  to  his  flock,  and  died  among  them 
in  the  year  A.D.  488,  the  fifty-eighth  year  of  his  age, 
the  eighteenth  of  his  episcopate,  and  the  seventh 
or  eighth  year  of  the  reign  of  Clovis. 

Besides  the  three  eulogiums  which  we  have  men- 
tioned, and  which  deal  with  the  political  events  of 
the  times,  Sidonius  has  left  us  a  collection  of  his 
letters,  written  in  imitation  of  those  of  Cicero  and 
of  the  3'ounger  Pliny,  and  intended  for  publication, 
in  which  we  find  those  sketches  of  life  and  mannei*s 
which  are  so  charming  and  so  valuable.  We  gather 
in  "cneral  from  them  that  the  Visigothic  element  in 
the  population  was  much  smaller  in  proportion,  and 
that  its  introduction  into  the  midst  of  the  Roman 
population  had  caused  much  loss  disturbance  in  the 
conditions  of  the  ancient  society,  than  we  should 
have  supposed.  Many  of  the  great  Gallo-Roman 
families  retain  their  possessions,  or  a  large  portion 
of  them,  and  still  inhabit  their  luxurious  villas. 
Sidonius  describes  his  own  villa  at  some   length. 


ROMAN  GAUL.  19 


He  has  numerous  friends  vsdth  whom  he  exchanges 
visits,  and  whose  pleasant  hospitalities  he  describes. 
He  keeps  up  a  considerable  literary  correspondence, 
sometimes  throws  off  a  jeu  d'esprit  in  verse,  and 
altogether  gives  the  impression  that  the  elegant, 
luxurious  Roman  life  with  which  we  are  familiar 
was  still  going  on  in  Southern  Gaul,  as  if  no  Gothic 
king  were  keeping  his  court  at  Thoulouse,  no  Gothic 
gaiTisons  were  established  here  and  there  through- 
out the  land,  and  there  were  no  Gothic  "  guests  " 
quartered  upon  the  estates  of  the  great  proprietors. 
And  yet  we  are  continually  coming  upon  indications 
that  the  barbarian  dominated  the  political  life  of 
this  Roman  society ;  the  fresh-complexioned,  fair- 
hauled,  blue-eyed  giants,  in  their  barbaric  trappings, 
frequently  come  upon  the  scene,  and  the  feelings  of 
the  higher  classes  of  the  Latins  towards  them  is 
fully  told  in  a  single  line — "  the  barbarians  whom 
we  ridicule  and  despise  and  fear."  *  But  with 
these  general  remarks,  and  with  an  occasional  note, 
we  will  leave  the  letters  of  Sidonius  to  speak  for 
themselves. 

In  Lib.  ii.  Ep.  1,  he  gives  a  long  descriptiou,  clearly 
imitated  from  Pliny,  of  the  villa  at  Avitacum ;  an 
estate  dearer  to  him,  he  says,  as  being  his  wife's 
possession,  than  if  it  had  been  his  own.  Behind  it 
rose  a  high  mountain ;  lower  hills  on  each  side  left 
a  plateau  on  which  the  villa  stood,  overlooking  a 
lake  two  miles  in  length.  He  describes  the  bath 
built  at  the  foot  of  a  cliff  covered  with  wood,  so 
*  Sidonius,  Lib.  iv.  Ep.  15. 


20  CHAELEAIAGNE, 


that  the  trees  cut  for  fuel  ahuost  fall  into  the  mouth 
of  the  fu^ace  which  heats  the  water.  The  bath- 
room has  a  semicircular  apse,  into  which  the  boiling 
water  pours  through  leaden  pipes.  Adjoining  is  the 
Unguentarium,  of  the  same  dimensions.  The  Frigi- 
darium  is  so  large  as  to  rival  those  of  public  baths, 
and  is  of  exact  proportions;  its  roof  terminates  in 
a  cone,  with  its  four  sides  covered  with  tiles.  The 
interior  of  the  room  is  lined  with  cement  of  extreme 
whiteness.  It  has  no  lascivious  pictures,  no  shame- 
less nudities,  whose  artistic  skill  is  a  disgrace  to  the 
artist.  No  actors  here,  in  masks  and  ridiculous 
costumes,  imitate ,  the  trappings  of  Philistio.  No 
wrestlers  and  boxers  in  indecent  attitudes.  In  a 
word,  there  is  nothing  to  shock  the  most  pure. 
Some  verses  may  attract  for  a  moment  the  attention 
of  those  who  enter,  who,  without  perhaps  caring  to 
read  them  over  again,  will  not  regret  having  read 
them  once.  It  is  clearly  the  modest  author  of  the 
verses  who  thus  speaks  of  them. 

He  describes  at  length  the  cold  bath,  with  its 
water  conveyed  from  the  mountains,  and  poured 
into  the  piscina  through  lions*  heads  so  lifelike  as 
almost  to  startle  the  spectator.  "We  cannot  go 
through  the  detailed  description  of  the  buildings  of 
the  villa,  with  its  summer  and  winter  apartments, 
and  its  long  corridor,  which  affords  an  ambulatory 
by  day,  and  a  sleeping-place  for  the  slaves  by  night 
We  will  only  particularize  a  small  dining-room, 
with  a  platform  above  it,  mounted  by  a  broad  and 
convenient  stair,  where  one  may  in  summer  enjoy 


ROSrAN   GAUL.  21 


at  the  same  time  the  pleasures  of  the  table  and  the 
view  of  the  lake.  "  There  it  is  pleasant  to  watch 
the  fisherman  engaged  in  his  sport;  there  it  is 
charming  to  hear  at  midday  the  shrill  sound  of 
the  cicalas,  and  in  the  evening  the  croaking  of  the 
frogs,  and  in  the  profound  silence  of  the  night  the 
voices  of  swans,  geese,  fowls ;  then  the  caw  of  rooks 
saluting  thrice  the  rosy  face  of  the  rising  dawn ; 
the  voice  of  Philomel  warbling  among  the  fruit 
trees,  Progne  twittering  among  the  eaves.  With 
these  mingles  sometimes  the  sound  of  the  Pan-pipes, 
with  which  the  watchful  Tityruses  of  our  mountains 
contend  against  one  another  in  nightly  concerts, 
amidst  the  flocks  which  tinkle  their  bells  as  they 
browse  their  pastures." 

He  describes  another  of  these  country  houses  so 
briefly  and  yet  so  completely  that  we  extract  the 
entire  passage :  it  is  in  the  south  of  Gaul  (Narbonne), 
the  property  of  Consentius. 

"  Situated  in  the  neighbourhood  ol  a  city,  a  river, 
and  the  sea,  it  supplies  food  for  your  guests,  and 
guests  for  yourself  Moreover,  it  oflers  by  its  situa- 
tion an  agreeable  prospect.  First,  the  house  presents 
high  walls  disposed  with  art  following  all  the  rules 
of  architectural  symmetry;  then,  it  is  embellished 
with  a  chapel,  majestic  porticoes,  and  baths ;  lastly, 
fields,  streams,  vineyards,  oliveyards,  avenues,  an 
esplanade,  a  mount,  make  it  a  delicious  abode.  To 
the  richness  and  elegance  and  convenience  of  the 
furniture  you  have  added  the  treasures  of  a  large 
library,  so  that  while  you  thus  occupy  yourself  with 


22  CHARLEMAGNE. 


literature  and  with  agriculture,  one  does  not  know 
which  is  best  cultivated,  your  estate  or  your  mind."  * 

Other  letters  f  give  a  pleasant  description  of  the 
mode  of  life  which  the  cultured  Gallo-Roman  gentry 
led  in  their  country  residences. 

Another  letter  gives  a  personal  description  of 
Theodoric  II.,  King  of  the  Visigoths,  the  predecessor 
of  Euric,  and  a  very  interesting  description  of  his 
daily  life,  which,  long  as  it  is,  is  worth  quoting,  since 
it  helps  us  much  to  realize  what  manner  of  men 
these  barbarian  kings  were.  "  Theodoric  is  a  very 
noticeable  man,  one  who  would  at  once  attract  atten- 
tion even  from  those  who  casually  beheld  him,  so 
richly  have  the  will  of  God  and  the  plan  of  nature 
endowed  his  person  with  gifts  corresponding  with 
his  fortunes.  His  character  is  such  that  not  even 
the  detraction  which  waits  on  kings  can  lessen  the 
praises  bestowed  upon  it.  .  .  .  Before  dawn  he 
attends  with  a  small  suite  the  office  of  Prime 
[Antelucanos]  of  liis  [Arian]  priests,  and  worships 
with  great  diligence ;  but,  to  speak  in  confidence, 
one  can  see  that  he  observes  this  reverence  out  of 
habit  rather  than  out  of  devotion.  The  cares  of 
administration  occupy  the  rest  of  the  morning.  An 
aimed  attendant  stands  beside  his  chair;  a  crowd  of 
skin-clad  guards  are  so  far  admitted  as  to  be  at 
liand,  and  so  far  excluded  as  not  to  disturb  by  tlieir 
noise,  so  that  the  murmur  of  their  conversation  may 
be  just  heard  before  the  doors,  without  the  curtains 

*  Lib.  viii.  Ep.  4. 
t  Lib.  ii.  Letter  9 ;  Lib.  viii.  Ep.  13. 


ROMAN   GAUL.  '  23 


but  within  the  barriers.  Meanwhile  audience  is 
given  to  the  ambassadors  of  the  nations ;  he  hears 
them  at  length,  he  answers  briefly.  If  anything 
can  be  protracted  he  is  slow,  if  anything  to  be  done 
he  is  prompt. 

"  When  the  second  hour  is  come,  he  rises  from  his 
seat,  and  finds  time  to  inspect  his  treasury  or 
his  stable.  If  a  hunt  has  been  ordered,  he  considers 
it  beneath  the  royal  dignity  to  carry  his  bow  by 
his  side,  but  if  you  point  out,  or  if  chance  presents, 
bird  or  beast,  he  puts  his  hand  behind  him ;  his 
attendant  puts  the  unstrung  bow  into  it,  for  he 
would  think  it  childish  to  carry  it  in  a  case,  and 
womanish  to  take  it  ready  strung.  Therefore, 
having  taken  it,  he  sometimes  strings  it  by  bringing 
the  two  heads  together  with  his  hands ;  sometimes, 
putting  the  knotted  end  to  his  heel,  he  slips  the 
knot  of  the  loose  cord  into  its  place  with  his  finger ; 
he  takes  the  arrows,  fixes,  shoots  them,  first  asking 
what  you  wish  him  to  hit.  You  say  what  he  should 
do,  and  he  does  it ;  if  either  makes  a  mistake,  it  is 
more  rarely  the  aim  of  the  archer  than  the  sight  of 
the  chooser  which  is  in  fault. 

"  If  you  are  asked  to  dinner,  which  on  non-festal 
days  is  like  that  of  a  private  person,  no  panting 
servant  places  on  the  table  a  tasteless  heap  of 
tarnished  silver.  It  is  the  conversation  which  is 
weighty,  for  there  people  talk  of  serious  things 
or  not  at  all.  The  cushions  of  the  couches  and  the 
tapestries  of  the  room  are  sometimes  of  purple, 
sometimes   of    fine   linen.      The    meals   please   by 


24  CHARLEMAGNE. 


skilful  cookery,  not  by  costliness ;  the  dishes  by  their 
polish,  not  their  massiveness.  The  cups  and  goblets 
are  so  seldom  filled,  that  you  are  more  likely  to 
complain  of  thirst  than  to  incur  the  complaint  of 
intemperance.  What  shall  I  say  more  ?  You  see 
there  Greek  elegance,  Gallic  abundance,  Italian 
quickness,  the  stateliness  of  a  public  banquet,  the 
courtesy  of  a  private  host,  the  etiquette  of  a  royal 
household.  The  splendour  of  the  Saturday  festival* 
I  need  not  describe,  since  no  one  is  ignorant  of  it. 
Let  me  return  to  what  I  undertook. 

"The  midday  sleep  is  never  long,  and  is  often 
omitted.     At  this  hour  he  likes  to  play  at  tableaf 

"  You  would  think  he  was  waging  war  even  in 
playing  his  men;  his  sole  care  is  to  win.  When 
playing  he  lays  aside  a  little  his  royal  gravity; 
he  bids  one  play  truly  as  between  friends.  To  tell 
you  what  I  think,  he  fears  to  be  feared.  Then  he 
is  amused  by  the  vexation  of  the  loser,  and  believes 
that  he  has  not  let  him  win  out  of  courtesy  when 
he  sees  him  annoyed  at  his  defeat.  What  will 
amuse  you  is  that  often  his  satisfaction  arising 
from  such  insignificant  causes  furthers  the  success 
of  serious  affairs.  Then  petitions  which  have  been 
refused  before  to  influential  solicitation,  are  granted 
at  once.      I    myself    have    sometimes    considered 

*  De  luxu  Sabhatario.  The  Goths,  being  Arians,  kept  Saturday 
as  a  feast,  while  the  Catholics  fasted. 

t  The  game  here  mentioned  was  a  very  common  one  at  this  period, 
but  wliat  was  the  nature  of  it  is  uncertain  ;  it  was  played  with  a 
board  (tahula),  dice  (tesserie),  and  men  (calculi);  it  is  diflBcuIt 
to  determine  how  to  translate  some  of  the  technical  words  used  in 
the  description  of  it. 


ROMAN   GAUL.  25 


myself  fortunate  in  being  vanquished,  since  my  lost 
game  has  won  me  my  cause, 

"About  nine  o'clock  the  cares  of  government 
recommence.  The  door  keepers  return,  the  patrons 
return.  The  noise  of  litigation  goes  on  into  the 
evening,  till  the  royal  supper  interrupts  it,  and 
then  it  spreads  throughout  the  palace  with  the 
patrons,  and  keeps  them  awake  till  bedtime. 

"During  supper  sometimes,  though  not  often, 
mimic  actors  are  introduced,  but  no  guest  is  allowed 
to  be  wounded  by  their  biting  pleasantries.  Here 
there  are  no  hydraulic  organs,  no  learned  and 
tedious  concerts,  no  lyrist  or  flutist,  no  female 
player  on  the  tambourine  or  psaltery ;  the  king  is 
only  pleased  with  those  strains  whose  sense  soothes 
the  soul  as  much  as  their  melody  the  ear.  When 
he  has  risen  from  table  the  guards  of  the  treasure 
begiu  their  nightly  watch  ;  armed  guards  are  placed 
at  the  doors  of  the  palace,  who  keep  watch  dui'ing 
the  hours  of  the  first  sleep."  * 

In  Lib.  iv.  20,  he  describes  a  youth  of  royal  race 
— probably  a  Frank — who  has  married  the  daughter 
of  some  distinguished  Gallo-Eoman,  paying  a  visit 
to  the  palace  of  his  father-in-law.  "  You  who  are 
fond  of  seeing  armour  and  armed  men,  what  a 
pleasure  it  would  have  been  to  you  could  you  have 
seen  the  royal  youth  Sigimer,  decked  out  in  the 
fashion  and   splendour   of  his  race,  like  a  bride- 

*  The  reader  may,  if  he  pleases,  compare  with  this  the  Imperial 
eupper  of  Majorian,  minutely  and  interestingly  described  in  Lib.  L 
Ep.  11,  and  the  Boman  banquet  in  Lib.  viii.  13. 


2()  CHARLEMAGNE. 


groom  or  suitor,  visiting  the  palace  of  his  father-in- 
law  !  His  own  horse  gorgeously  caparisoned,  other 
horses  trapped  with  blazing  gems  going  before  or 
following  him ;  but  what  most  deserved  attention 
was  the  young  prince  himself,  on  foot,  in  the  midst 
of  his  outriders  and  rear-guard,  clad  in  a  combina- 
tion of  flaming  crimson,  shining  gold,  and  milk- 
white  silk,  his  ruddy  cheeks,  golden  hair,  and 
milk-white  skin  repeating  these  colours  of  his 
dress.  The  aspect  of  the  petty  kings  and  com- 
panions who  accompanied  him  was  terrible,  even 
in  their  peaceful  errand.  They  had  the  foot 
protected  with  leather,  while  the  calf,  knee,  and 
thigh  were  uncovered.  Their  tunics,  of  various 
colours,  coming  high  up  in  the  neck,  tight-girdled, 
scarcely  reached  their  bare  legs ;  the  sleeves  covered 
only  the  upper  part  of  their  arms;  they  had  green 
cloaks  adorned  with  purple  fringes ;  their  swords, 
depending  from  their  shoulders  by  baldrics,  were 
pressed  close  to  their  sides  by  the  reindeer  skins, 
which  were  fastened  by  a  round  clasp.*  As  for 
that  part  of  their  adornment  which  was  also  a 
defence,  their  right  hand  held  hooked  lances  and 
battle-axes  for  throwing;  their  left  sides  were 
shadowed  by  round  shields,  whose  silvery  lustre, 
with  a  golden  boss,  proclaimed  wealth  as  well  as 
taste.     All  was   so  ordered  that  in  this  weddinir 

*  Mr.  Hodgkin  (*'  Italy  and  her  Invaders  ")  says  that  the  liheno 
or  reindeer  skiu  seems  to  have  answered  the  same  purpose  as  the 
waterproof  of  modern  civilization,  and,  like  it,  when  not  actually 
in  use  would  be  rolled  up  and  slung  over  the  shoulder. 


ROMAN  GAUL.  27 


procession    the   splendour  of   Mars  was  not  less 
apparent  than  that  of  Venus." 

Another  letter,  in  a  few  jocose  verses,  gives  a 
picture  of  the  curious  mixture  of  barbarous  rude- 
ness and  Roman  refinement  which  that  mixed  society 
presented,  and  makes  no  secret  of  the  feelings  with 
which  the  Gallo-Roman  nobility  endured  the  coarse- 
ness of  their  barbarian  masters.  We  are  indebted 
to  Mr.  Hodgkin's  "  Italy  and  her  Invaders"  for  a 
poetical  version  in  which  he  retains  the  metre  of 
the  original : — 

"  Ah  me,  my  friend,  why  bid  me,  e'en  if  I  had  the  power 
To  write  the  light  Fescennine  verse,  fit  for  the  nuptial  bower  ? 
Do  you  forget  tliat  I  am  placed  among  the  long-haired  hordes. 
That  daily  I  am  bound  to  hear  the  stream  of  German  words, 
That  I  must  hear,  and  then  must  praise,  with  sorrowful  grimaco 
(Disgust  and  approbation  both  contending  in  my  face), 
Whate'er  the  gormandizing  sons  of  Burgundy  may  sing, 
While  they  upon  their  yellow  hair  the  rancid  butter  fling? 

"  Now  let  mo  tell  you  what  it  is  that  makes  my  lyre  be  dumb  : 
It  cannot  sound  when  all  around  barbarian  lyres  do  hum. 
The  sight  of  all  these  jiatrons  tall  (eacli  one  is  seven  feet  high) 
From  my  poor  muse  makes  every  thought  of  six-foot  metres  fly. 
Oh!  happy  are  thine  eyes,  my  friend:  thine  ears,  how  happy 

those ! 
And  oh  !  thrice  happy  I  would  call  thy  undisgusted  nose. 
'Tis  not  round  thee  that  every  morn  ten  talkative  machines 
Exhale  the  smell  of  onions,  leeks,  and  all  their  vulgar  greens ; 
They  do  not  seek  thy  house,  as  mine,  before  the  dawn  of  day, 
So  many  giants  and  so  tall,  so  fond  of  trencher  play, 
That  scarce  Alcinous  himself,  that  hospitable  king, 
Would  find  his  kitchen  large  enough  for  the  appetites  they  bring. 
They  do  not,  these  eflFusive  souls,  declare  they  look  on  thee 
As  father's  friend  or  foster-sire — but  alas !  they  do  on  me. 


28  CHAELEilAGNE. 


"  But  stop,  my  muse  !  pull  up !  be  still !  or  else  some  fool  will  sav, 
'iSidonius  writes  lampoons  again.'      Don't  you  believe  them, 
pray." 

We  will  only,  at  present,  allude  to  one  more  of 
these  interesting  letters,*  which  gives  us  a  glimpse 
of  a  Roman  military  officer,  causing  his  trumpets  to 
sound  the  signal  of  departure  on  board  the  fleet, 
for,  with  the  duties  of  a  soldier  and  a  sailor  com- 
bined, he  has  orders  to  coast  along  the  winding  shores 
of  the  ocean,  looking  out  for  the  curved  barks  of  the 
Saxons^jirates  every  man  of  them.  Prevented 
by  the  Franks,  who  intervened  between  them  and 
the  empire,  from  taking  part  in  the  adventures  by 
which  other  tribes  were  carving  out  settlements  on 
the  continent,  the  Saxons  took  to  their  ships  and 
crossed  over  to  Britain,  fxoih  whicK  Honorius  had_^ 
withdrawn  the  lecrions,  ancTthere  founded  the  king:- 
doms  of  the  East,  "West,  and  SouthSaxpjLSt  Others 
'*^oF~EEem,  iF^eemSj'saiTedT'urther'westward,  making 
descents  upon  the  coasts  of  Gaul,  exercising  great 
cruelties,  and  not  only  carrying  oiF  the  property  of 
the  people,  but  carrying  off  the  people  themselves 
as  slaves.  He  mentions  in  this  letter  that  before 
embarking  on  their  return  home  from  one  of  these 
plundering  expeditions,  it  was  their  custom  to  slay 
with  tortures  a  tenth  part  of  their  captives,  from  a 
superstitious  notion  that  they  would  thus  ensure 
a  safe  return  voyage. 

*  Lib.  Tii.  Ep.  6. 


(    29    ) 


CHAPTER  IV. 

THE   CONQUESTS   OF  CLOVIS. 

The  battle  of  Soissous  and  conquest  of  the  Koman  province— The 
marriage  of  Clovis— War  with  the  Alemanni— The  battle  of 
Tolbiac — The  conversion  of  Clovis — The  Franks  embrace 
Christianity — Conquest  of  the  Burgundians— Conquest  of 
Aquitaine— Consolidation  of  the  Frank  kingdoms — The 
Franks  and  the  Latins  separate  nations — Survey  of  the  Frank 
Empire — The  cities — Clovis  nominated  consul  and  patrician. 

Clovis,*  we  have  said,  was  only  fourteen  years  of 
age  when  his  father's  death  devolved  upon  him  the 

*  It  wUl  be  convenient  to  say,  once  for  all,  that  these  Prankish 
proper  names  have  come  down  to  us  in  the  spelling  by  which  the 
contemporary  historians,  writing  in  Latin,  endeavoured  to  represent 
the  Germanic  sounds,  with  the  addition  of  a  Latin  termination ;  as 
Chlovechus,  or  Clodovicus,  Theodoricus,  Chilpericus,  Childebtrtus, 
Sigibertus,  Guntchramnus,  or  Guntramuus,  Theodebertns,  Brunc- 
childis,  Fredciiundis,  Eadegundis,  Chrodieldis,  etc.  The  original 
names  were  Hlodwig  or  Chlodwig,  Theudorich,  Hilprich,  Childi- 
bert,  Sigibert,  Gundram,  Theudobert,  Brunihild,  Fredegund, 
Eadegund,  Hruothilda,  etc.  Modern  German  most  nearly  retains 
the  ancient  names  in  its  Ludwig,  Dietrich,  etc. ;  modem  French 
has  softeiied  them  into  Louis,  Thierry,  etc.  We  have  been  content 
to  adopt  the  forms  of  these  proper  names  which  are  most  familiar 
to  English  readers. 


so  CHARLEMAGNK 


chieftainship  of  one  of  the  small  principalities  into 
which  the  Franks  were  divided,  which  could  furnish 
a  band  of  about  four  thousand  warriors.  But  the 
young  king  was  of  the  daring,  enterprising,  un- 
scrupulous, and  able  character  of  which,  in  troubled 
times,  successful  adventurers  are  made;  and,  with 
these  small  means,  his  audacity  and  favouring  cir- 
cumstances won  for  him  within  a  few  years  the 
conquest  of  the  whole  of  Gaul. 

The  Franks  had  long  been  the  allies  of  the 
empire,  and  had  formed  a  defence  for  it  along  the 
frontier  of  the  Lower  Rhine.  But  no  doubt  the 
example  of  other  barbarian  adventurers  who  were 
winning  possessions  in  other  parts  of  the  empire  fired 
the  mind  of  the  ambitious,  enterprising  young 
Frank ;  probably  the  barbarian  races  behind  the 
Franks  shared  the  general  unquiet  among  the  bar- 
barians, and  pushed  them  on  towards  the  empire. 
Clovis  took  a  great  resolution,  assembled  his 
warriors,  and  marched  them  across  the  forests  to 
Soissons,  attacked  the  Prefect  Syagrius,  and  inflicted 
upon  him  a  total  defeat.  Syagrius  fled  for  refuge  to 
his  ally,  the  Gothic  king  at  Thoulouse ;  was  given 
up  by  this  ally  on  the  demand  of  Clovis,  and  put  to 
death.  No  one  took  upon  himself  to  maintain  the 
interests  of  the  distant  emperor ;  no  one  attempted  to 
rally  the  forces  of  the  province  against  the  Frankish 
conqueror.  Thus,  at  the  cost  of  one  battle,  the  young 
Frank  adventurer,  the  chief  of  a  few  thousands  of 
semi-barbarians,  living  the  rude  life  of  farmers 
and  hunters  in  their  scattered  hamlets,  found  him- 


THE  CONQUESTS  OF  CLOVIS. 


31 


self  the  successor  of  the  Imperial  authority  over 
the  populous  and  wealthy  cities,  the  fertile  lands 
studded  with  luxurious  villas,  the  wealthy  and  civi- 
lized population  of  the  whole  of  Northern  Gaul. 

He  exercised  his  power  with  politic  moderation : 
respected  the  municipal  institutions  of  the  cities, 
which  made  them  almost  self-govemin'r,  left  un- 
molested  the  propert}--  and  liberties  of  the  people 
generally,  and  continued  the  administration  of  the 
Imperial  law  through  the  existing  hierarchy  of 
officials.  The  lands  of  the  Imperial  treasury  and 
the  unreclaimed  lands  afforded  ample  means  of 
rewarding  his  warriors,  who,  grouped  here  and  there 
on  their  new  estates,  formed  a  sufficient  garrison 
where  no  one  thought  of  resistance. 

Of  the  Teutonic  races  who  figure  prominently  in 

the  overthrow  of  the  Western  Empire  in  the  fifth 

century — Goth.  Vandal,  Burgundian,  Sweve.  Frank, 

Lombard,  and  Saxon — all  liad  become  Christians 

m  tlie  course  of  the  previous  ceuLury,  wiLlT 

"ueptlun  uf  tllB  FMnKs  and~'Saxoris.     The  Goths. 


we  knoAv,  had  been  convertedby  the  la^urs  qj 
Ulphilas.  How  tKe  Gospel  sgrea3To  the  other 
"races  we  do  notTmow.  No  record  wHatever,  not 
even" a  legend,  remains  on  tho.  snbjftpf,,  pyp.Apf,'yi  thg 
case  of  the  Burgundlans.  Socrates,  the  ecclesiastical 
nistorian,    tells    u>    tliat 


occupied  "tlie  left  bank  of  tEeRhine,  had  acquired 
peaceful  habits,  and  employed  themselves  in  some 
kind  of  manufacture,  when  the  terrible  invasion  of 
the  Huns  under  Attila  broke  in  upon  their  quiet 


32 


CHAELEMAGNE. 


indusfciy.  Des£airiiig_of_the  aid_fi£-'«aan^_they 
looked  roimdjor^^some_grotectmg-4eity.  _The  God 
of  the  Romans  appearedjjite  mighta^st,  as  worsIiippe3" 
Bylhe  most  powerful  people.  Theysought^^e  aid 
of  the  bishop  of  some  "neigfabouHng-  citv  or^jfaul^ 
aSgTa^r  some  previoiis  preparation,  received  thg_ 
r^eof  baptism.  A.  victory  over  their  enemy  con- 
mrmeS  "tEem  ~in  their  new  faith.  Subsequently, 
probably  through  the  influence  of  their  Teutonic 
kindred,  they  adopted  the  Arian  creed, 

At  the  period  at  which  we  have  now  an-ived, 
Gondebaud,  one  of  the  Burgundian  kings,  had 
slain  his  brother  Chilperic  with  his  wife,  and  con- 
demned their  two  daughters  to  exile.  The  envoys 
of  Clovis  had  praised  the  beauty  and  good  sense  of 
Clotilda,  the  younger  of  the  princesses.  Clovis 
demanded  her  in  marriage,  and  Gondebaud  did 
nor  care  to  risk  his  enmity  by  a  refusal.*  In  some^ 
^unexplained  way  Clotilda  had  been  broufyht  up  in 
the  orthodox~creed,  winch"  Gondebaud  and  large 
numbers" of ^the  ^urgundians  a  little  later  also 
embraced,  under  the  influence  of  Avitus,  the  dis- 
tinguished bishop  of  Vienne.  The  Christian_wifs. 
naturallyjiried  to  convert  her  heathen  husband,  but 
without  success.  He  gave  every  toleration  to  the 
r^igion 


ot  nis  newly  conquered  Gallo-Roman 
subjects;  he  paid  every  respect  to  the  powerful 
bishops  of  the  cities  in  his  new  dominions ;  in  his 
own  house  he  allowed   his   queen^-te^JfoUow  her 


'rellffion,  and  wlien  a  child  was  born  to  ihem  he 
^  S^GregnrjrorTourerLib.  ii.  28. 


THE  CONQUESTS   OF   CLOVIS. 


its  motlierJ^fiLjiave  it  bapj^zed-.     The  death 
of  the  chnTwrthin  a  few  days,  while  still,  acco: 
Eo  cu^ffl,  Ti^6&l-ing  its  wh!t(^  Mpttflmal  ropes,  wasi 


caJicu^jed  to  leaved  sinister  impression;  bufc 
a  second  child  was  born,  he  allowed  this  also 
Baptized.  This  also  T)egan  to  sicTi:en ;  but  the 
"Clotilda  prayed  earnestly  that  its  lue  mi 
spared  for  th"e" promotion  oi  lioa's  glory  Hmong  the' 
Heathen.  SIie~naturally  regarded  its  recover 
repres^ted  it  to  her  husband,  as  an  answer 

prayers:  "  '"  ' 

""we^may  be  sure  that  the  relations  of  Clovis  to 
his  Christian  conquests  had  its  influence  upon  his 
religious  views ;  Christianity  was  universally  x^z^ 
garded  as  the  rehgion  of  civiiization,  heaihenism  as 
the  religion  oi  barbarism.  I'here  is  no  reason  to 
tliink  that  the  Franks  were  more  opposed  to 
Christianity  than  the  other  barbarians  who  had 
already  embraced  Christianity,  onl^_th£_QhiisU§ji 
teachers  had  not  rea^hfid  _  thgffl  ^nd  their  Saxoiu 
neighbours.^  Once  brought  into  these  close  relations 
with  the  iQallo-Romans  the  conversion  of  the  Franks 
was  sure,  sooner  or  later,  to  follow.  The  influences 
of  civilization  and  Christianity  were  aheady  acting 
forcibly  upon  the  able  mind  of  the  young  Frank 
prince  ;  and  these  influences,  domestic  and  political, 
were  gradually  preparing  the  mind  of  Clovis  for 
the  conversion  which  a  special  crisis  soon  pre- 
cipitated. 

The    barbarian   tribes    beyond    the    Rhine   and 
Danube  were  still  in  motion,  and  those  who  had 


34  CHARLEMAGNE. 


- 


already  seized  upon  possessions  in  the  empire  had 
to  defend  thera  against  all  comers.  It  was  probably- 
some  such  movement  which  shortly  brought  the 
Franks  into  hostilities  with  the  kindred  Alemanni. 

The  hostile  forces  met  in  battle  at  Tolbiac 
(Zulpich,  near  Cologne).  The  small  army  of  the 
Franks  was  hard  pressed  by  the  Alemanni.  Clovis, 
like  Constantine  on  the  eve  of  his  engagement 
with  Maxentius,  looked  about  him  for  some  super- 
natural aid.  He  invoked  the  God  of  the  Christians, 
and  vowed  that_ifJBe  would  give  hii2Lil,uii.xIgtor^ 
ne^ould  believe  in  Him  _and  be  .l7aip^^i^'^d,_  The 
liSeof  battle  turned.  The  king  of  the  Alemanni 
was  slain;  and  the  Alemanni,  in  danger  of  total 
destruction,  hailed  Clovis  as  their  king  (a.d.  496). 

There  is  a  remarkable  difference  between   this. 
second~great  ConversionToF'tlic  ^aiibariaM_ancLfcli^ 
first  ^reat  Conversion  ^TtEe  Emjire.     In  the  first 
conversion  individual  soula  were  gathered  m  one^ 
l?y  one"; "  ttTc ^rnlTI  i^gan  among  the  lower  "classes  ot 
iBe  people,  aiil  i;ia(]nally  worRed"i[s  wayupwards" 
through  the liigher  classe.^,  an!  tli'  c^versiMi  or 
the  emperor   marks   the   triumph   of  CliiHflhTiiTy 
"over  the  cultured  paganism  of  Gioeco  ami  rvcmf. 
In  the  secondL  conversion  the  \^ik  u.^ually  began 
with  the  kings;  the  question  of  the  adoption  or 
Christianity  was  considered  as  a  political  question 
which  affected  the  national  life.     The  kins:  sub- 
mitted  the  question  first  to  his  counsellors,  then  it 
was  proposed  to  the  tribesmen;   and  usually  the 
baptism  of  the  king  was  accompanied  by  that  of  a 


THE  CONQUESTS  OF  CLOVIS.  S5 

large  number  of  his  people.  These  features  of  the 
barbarian  conversion  are  illustrated  in  the  case  of 
the  Franks. 

Clotilda  summoned  Remigius,  the  saintly  bishop 
of  KEeiHiij,  Lu  liisfaucL  the  royaTconverrand  prepare 
him  for '"Baptism.  We  are  told  that  when  the 
young  hero  heard  from  the  bishop's  lips  the  history 
of  Christ's  passion  and  death,  he  gave  curious 
evidence  of  his  sympathy  with  the  Divine  sufferer, 
and  of  his  failui-e  to  understand  the  spiritual 
significance  of  the  awful  transaction,  by  exclaiming, 
"  Had  I  been  there  with  my  Franks  I  would  have 
taught  those  Jews  a  lesson  ! " 

The  king's  baptism  took  place  at  the  following 
Christmas.*  It  was  performed  with  all  the  solemnity 
and  pomp  which  the  great  and  wealthy  Ciiuxdl-Qf 
Rheims  could  display  on  so  important  an  occasion, 
and    the    ceremony    is    elaborately    described    in 
rhetorical  language  by  Gregory  of  Tours-and  others. » 
The  church  was  hung  with  embroidered  tapestry! 
and  white  curtains;  it  blazed  with  countless  lights  ;l 
odours    of    incense,    like    airs    of    Paradise,   were\ 
diffused    around.f     Remigius   addressed   hm  rnyfj,] 


catechumen :  "  Gently  bow  thy  hea(^.  Sif.a.Tnhpfl.Ti  | 
hencefoftli  worship  that  whichthou  hast  burnt, 
^ncl  burn  that  wfJiclTlhou  hast  worshipped."  The 
king^  example  was  followed  by  his  people;  five 
thousand  of  his   warriors  are  said  to   have   been 

*  The  contemporarj'  Avitiis  says  Christmas.     Fredegarius  the 
chronicler,  a  century  later,  says  Easter, 
t  Gregory  of  Tours,  ii.  .31. 


86  CHAllLEMAGNK 


baptized  at  one  time ;  and  Christianity  was_ado£ted 
as  the  national  religion ;  though  for  a  century  after 
tEere  are  evidences  that  their  old  religion  still 
lingered  among  the  Franks. 

The  importance  of  the  conversion  of  Clovis  was 
increased  by  the  fact  that  at  that  time  he  was  the 
only  orthodox  sovereign  in  Christendom;  the 
other  barbarian  kings  were  Arians,  and  Anastasius, 
the  Eastern  emperor,  favoured  the  Monophysites. 
This  fact  had  a  great  influence  upon  his  political 
prospects.  It  did  much  to  reconcile  his  Latin 
subjects  to  his  sovereignty,  and  it  attracted  the 
sympathies  of  the  Latin  inliabitants  of  the  other 
provinces  of  Gaul  —  Burgundy  and  Aquitaine.* 
Clovis  was  quite  ambitious  enough  to  desire  to 
unite  the  whole  of  Gaul  under  his  rule,  and  politic 
enough  to  take  full  advantage  of  this  religious 
feeling  in  his  favour. 

He  began  hostilities  against  the  Burgundians, 
a»d  secured  the  secret  good  wishes  of  the  cities 
and  Latin  population  generally,  by  the  profession 
of  his  religious  sympathies.  The  Latin  inhabitants 
of  the  Burgundian  provinces,  after  in  vain  suggest- 
ing to  their  rulers  that  to  adopt  the  orthodox  creed 
would  strengthen  their  position,  hardly  disguised 
their  sympathies  with  the  orthodox  Franks ;  and 
several  bishops  and  influential  Gallo-Romans  Avere 
exiled  in  consequence.  The  result  of  a  series  of 
engagements  Avas  that  the  Burgundians  were  com- 
pelled to  acknowledge  the  Frank  as  their  "  suzerain," 
*  Gregory  of  Tours,  ii.  23,  3G. 


THE  CONQUESTS   OF  CLOVIS.  37 

to  pay  him  tribute  in  peace,  and  send  their  warriors 
to  follow  his  banner  in  war. 

The  Visigoths  gave  him  a  pretext  for  under- 
taking a  war  to  deliver  the  people  of  Aquitaine 
from  a  religious  persecution.  Euric,  the  Gothic 
king,  was  a  zealous  Arian,  who  harassed  and 
persecuted  the  Latin  population,  exiled  their  bishops, 
imprisoned  their  priests,  and  blocked  up  the  doors 
of  their  churches  with  thorns.*  Clovis  came  in  the 
character  of  the  champion  of  the  Catholic  religion.  A 
single  battle  at  Poitiers,  A.D.  508,  broke  the  Visigothic 
power  in  Gaul,  and  the  wealthy  and  refined  Latin 
population  of  this  flourishing  province  gladly  ex- 
changed the  sovereignty  of  the  Arian  Euric  for 
that  of  the  orthodox  Clovis,  and  the  Gothic 
garrisons  and  "  guests  "  f  for  those  of  a  ruder  race 
who  at  least  were  co-religionists. 

The  last  gi-eat  measure  which  consolidated  the 
power  of  Clovis  was  the  union  of  all  the  sub- 
divisions of  the  Frank  nation  under  his  own  king- 
ship. The  historians  accuse  him  of  not  shrinking 
from  crime  in  the  pursuit  of  this  object  of  his 
ambition.  They  say  that  he  suggested  to  the  son 
of  Sigeberfc,  king  of  the  Ripuarian  Franks,  the 
assassination  of  his  father,  with  the  promise  that 
he  would  favour  his  succession,  then  caused  the 
parricide  to  be  slain,  and  obtained  his  own  election. 

*  Gregorj  of  Tours,  ii.  25.  It  was  the  usual  way  of  forbidding 
access  to  the  holy  plnccs.  See  "  Etudes  Historiques,"  by  C. 
Barthe'lemy  (Paris,  1847),  p.  380. 

t  "  Guests  "  were  barbnrians  quartered  upon  the  estates  of  the 
Latin  landowners. 


38  CHARLEMAGNE. 


They  accuse  him  also  of  getting  rid  of  his  near 
relations,  the  chiefs  who  ruled  over  the  subdivisions 
cf  the  Salian  Franks  at  Therouanne  and  Cambrai, 
and  thus  removing  the  obstacles  to  the  consolidation 
of  the  Frankish  power. 

Lastly,  the  Armoricans  nominally  recognized  the 
sovereignty  of  Clovis;  but,  safe  in  the  depths  of 
their  forests,  they  had  little  intercourse  with  the 
rest  of  the  world,  and  were  practically  independent. 

Let  us  briefly  glance  at  the  condition  of  the 
Frankish  Empire  at  the  end  of  the  conquests  of 
Clovis. 

To  begin  with  the  original  seats  of  the  nation. 
All  the  right  bank  of  the  Rhine,  from  the  mountains 
of  Switzerland  to  the  shores  of  the  German  Ocean,  in 
a  belt  of  variable  breadth,  bounded  on  the  east  by 
the  Saxons  and  Frisians,  was  inhabited  entirely  by 
Franks.  On  the  left  bank  of  the  Rhine  also,  from 
the  Moselle  down  to  the  ocean,  the  Franks  inhabited 
the  country  which  their  fathers  had  won  a  century 
before.  Passing  from  the  Rhine  to  the  Somme,  a 
mixture  of  population  begins  to  appear,  and  the 
further  westward  the  greater  the  intermixture  of 
Latins  among  the  Franks :  but  still  the  Franks  are 
the  proprietors  of  the  country,  and  are  settled  on 
the  land  in  entire  tribes  and  agricultural  com- 
munities, and  the  Gallo-Roman  population  is  chiefly 
in  the  condition  of  labourers  and  artizans  amonof 
the  Frankish  conquerors.  The  Somme  is  the 
boundary  line  between  the  country  in  which  the 


THE  CONQUESTS  OF  CLOVIS.  39 

Franks  dwell,  and  that  of  which  they  are  only- 
masters.  Beyond  the  Somme,  and  passing  west- 
ward towards  the  Seine,  the  Latin  population 
predominates.  The  cities  are  entirely  Roman.  The 
Franks  are  settled  only  here  and  there  in  military 
colonies,  safe-guarding  the  sovereignty  of  King 
Clovis.  As  we  pass  on  into  Aquitaine  the  popula- 
tion is  still  more  entirely  Eoman  in  character. 
The  general  prosperity  of  this  beautiful  country 
was  little  interrupted  either  by  Goth  or  Frank ; 
and  it  retained  its  ancient  Roman  civilization, 
altered  only  by  the  progress  of  a  gradual  decadence. 

We  shall  find  in  the  sequel  that  these  natural 
differences  in  the  character  of  the  populations  make 
themselves  felt  in  their  political  history.  The 
civilization  of  the  Romano-Gallic  land  effected  a 
moral  conquest  over  the  Franks  who  garrisoned 
and  governed  it,  and  they  ended  by  adopting  its 
interests.  The  feeling  of  antagonism  between  the 
Romano-Gallic  people  and  the  Frank  people  con- 
tinued for  ages  after  their  union;  and  the  Somme 
was  in  fact  the  boundary  between  two  nations, 
Austrasia  and  Neustria. 

One  important  feature  of  the  political  condition 
of  the  mixed  populations  of  all  those  districts  in 
which  the  Franks  were  only  military  settlers,  is 
that  the  original  Latin  inhabitants  and  the  barba- 
rians settled  among  them  continued  to  be  two  dis- 
tinct peoples,  each  governed  by  its  own  laws.  The 
Franks  were  ruled  by  the  king  of  their  own  election, 
according   to    their    national    laws  and    customs ; 


40  CHARLEMAGNE. 


the  Latins  were  ruled  by  the  old  Imperial  law, 
administered  by  magistrates,  probably  in  most  cases 
of  their  own  race,  appointed  by  the  king.  The 
relations  of  the  Latin  race  with  their  barbarian 
masters  were  fairly  equitable,  and  not  unkindly.* 
What  oppression  there  was,  was  chiefly  due  io  the 
wickedness  of  Gallo-Romans,  who  used  their  office 
under  the  Franks  in  tyrannizing  over  their  own 
countrymen ;  f  and  in  not  a  few  cases  the  smaller 
landed  proprietors  voluntarily  abandoned  their  con- 
dition as  Romans,  and  placed  themselves  under  the 
protection  of  a  powerful  Frank  neighbour,  and 
became  his  "  men,"  and  thereby  escaped  the  tyranny 
of  their  own  magistrates,  and  the  exactions  of  the 
old  Roman  fiscal  system. 

The  barbarian  kings,  indeed,  soon  saw  the  wisdom 

of  embodying  their  national   customs  in  written 

codes ;  and  in  drawing  up  these  codes,  probably  with 

the  assistance  of  their  Roman  advisers  as  well  as  of 

their  chiefs  and  elders,  they  introduced  more  or  less 

of  modification  and  improvement  called  for  by  their 

new  condition  and  their  growing  civilization.     The 

^alic  law,  the  code  of  the  Franks,  opens  with  a 

'stately  preface,  in  which  they  speak  of  themselves 

A  ^"^  "J:!?®  nation  of  the   Franks,  illustrious,  hayipn^ 

VGoii  forjts  founder. hrave  in  arms,  constant  in  the 

^orks  of  peace,   prblound  in   counsel,  faithful   to 

*  Gregory  of  Tours  gives  no  hint  that  the  natives  were 
oppressed  by  the  Franks. 

t  Sidonius  (Lib.  v.  Ep.  7)  pours  out  his  detestation  of  these  men 
in  pages  of  energetic  rhetoric. 


if 


THE  CONQUESTS  OF  CLOVIS.  41 

treaties,  noble  and  healthy  in  body,  of  a  singular 
■'airness  and  beauty,  hardy,  active,  bold  in  combat,  / 
Jately  converted   to   the   Catholic  faith,  free   from  [ 
n^resy:  wbiie^et  in  a  liai-ljarous  belief  scrkiii;^;.  l>^| 
the   inspiration  of  God,   the   key   of  kno-wlcdge  \ 
Tovmg  justice,   mindful   of  pity.      The  Salic   law. 
'wfE^'dictatecL "by  the  chiefs  of  the  nation,  Avho  ali  I 
that  time  held  command  among  them.  .  .  .  Gloryj  ', 
to  Christ,  who  loves  the  Franks !     May  He  havd 
regard  to  their  kingdom !  .  .  .  This  is  the  nation'^ 
which,  small   in  numbers,  but  brave  and  strong, 
broke   off  from   its   neck   the   hard   yoke   of   the 
Romans." 

The  condition  of  the  cities  forms  another  very 
important  feature  in  the  political  and  social  con- 
dition of  the  country.  Each  great  fortified  city, 
with  a  tract  of  country  around  it  and  dependent 
upon  it,  had  a  municipal  constitution  modelled  on 
the  republican  constitution  of  ancient  Rome.  It 
governed  itself  in  all  internal  affairs.  It  paid  a 
tribute  to  the  Imperial  or  royal  treasury  in  one 
fixed  sum,  raising  the  sum  among  the  citizens  at  the 
discretion  of  its  own  officers.  Its  walls  and  towers  * 
were  manned  by  its  own  militia,  not  by  the  Imperial 
or  voysl  troops ;  and,  on  the  other  hand,  its  citizens 
were  not  liable  to  serve  in  the  royal  armies.  The 
great  landowners  of  the  neighbourhood  usually  had 

*  Gregory  of  Tours  describes  Dijon  in  his  time,  situated  in  tlie 
midst  of  a  fertile  plain,  ■with  walls  thirty  feet  high  and  five  thick, 
Btuddcd  with  thirty-three  towers ;  a  small  stream  ran  through  the 
town,  and  was  used  to  fill  a  moat  round  the  ramparts,  and  to  turn 
many  mills  in  front  of  the  gates  (Lib.  iii.  19). 


42  CHARLEMAGNE. 


town  houses,  which  were  their  chief  mansions;*  they 
were  citizens,  and  often  held  municipal  offices.  Each 
city  then  was  a  little  republic.  There  was  little 
feeling  of  community  of  interest  among  them ;  on 
the  contrary,  there  were  frequent  jealousies  between 
one  city  and  another,  which  provoked  quarrels,  and 
sometimes  broke  out  into  actual  hostilities. 

This  condition  of  the  cities  will  help  to  explain 
the  weakness  of  the  empire  against  the  barbarians ; 
each  of  these  little  republics  stood  on  its  own 
defence,  and  contributed  nothing  to  the  general 
security.  It  will  account  for  the  readiness  with 
which  the  province  of  Syagrius  submitted  to  Clovis 
when  the  Prefect  had  been  defeated  at  Soissons. 
And  we  must  bear  in  mind  that  these  cities  retained 
their  constitution  under  the  Franks,  and  continued 
to  be  to  a  great  extent  Latin  republics  in  the  midst 
of  a  Frankish  empire. 

The  last  incident  which  we  have  to  mention  in 
the  history  of  Clovis  is  the  legalization  of  his  posi- 
tion in  Gaul  by  the  Imperial  recognition.  When 
Odoacer  made  Augustulus  resign  the  purple,  he 
also  made  the  senate  report  to  the  court  of  Con- 
stantinople that  it  was  unnecessary  to  maintain  an 
emperor  of  the  West;  that  they  placed  themselves 
under  the  authority  of  the  emperor  of  the  East, 
and  requested   him   to   nominate   Odoacer  as   his 

*  An  enactment  of  the  council  which  Clovis  summoned  at 
Orleans  in  the  last  year  of  his  reign  required  that  the  inhabitants 
of  towns  should  not  pass  the  great  festivals  of  the  Church — 
Christmas,  Easter,  and  Ponteccst — in  their  country  houses. 


THE  CONQUESTS   OF   CLOVIS.  43 

representative  in  Italy.  The  Byzantine  court, 
with  a  refined  and  far-seeing  policy,  thereupon 
assumed  the  nominal  sovereignty  over  the  whole 
empne;  and  proceeded  to  legalize  the  position  of 
the  barbarian  kings  who  had  gained  settlements 
within  it,  and  to  harmonize  their  actual  power  witn 
the  Imperial  theory,  by  conferring  upon  them  titles 
which  made  them  nominally  the  representatives  of 
the  Imperial  authority.  The  kings,  profoundly  awed 
by  the  idea  of  the  Imperial  authoi'ity,  which  in  fact 
they  so  rudely  violated,  were  glad  to  bear  the  titles 
of  Consul  and  Patrician  which  centuries  had  made 
illustrious ;  they  probably  found,  also,  that  it  conci- 
liated their  subjects  to  be  able  to  regard  themselves 
as  once  more  citizens  of  the  empire  ruled  by 
legitimate  authority,  rather  than  as  subjects,  by 
right  of  conquest,  of  the  barbarian. 

Thus,  in  the  last  year  of  the  reign  of  Clovis, 
A.B.  510,  he  accepted  from  the  Emperor  Anastasius 
the  title  of  Consul  and  Patrician,  and  rode  to  the 
cathedral  of  Tours,  clad  in  the  Roman  tunic  and 
purple  mantle,  scattering  a  royal  donative  among 
the  people,  who,  in  their  adulations,  hailed  him  with 
the  titles  of  Consul  and  Augustus. 

He  died  in  the  course  of  the  year  which  witnessed 
this  climax  of  his  dignity,  and  was  buried  at  Paris 
in  the  Church  of  the  Apostles  (afterwards  of  St. 
Genevieve)  which  he  and  Clotilda  had  built. 


44 


CHARLEMAGNE. 


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(    45    ) 


CHAPTER  V. 

THE  MEROVINGIAN   KINGS. 

Division  of  the  domiuions  of  Clovis  among  lioifi  four  sons — Eecon- 
qucst  of  Burgundy — Death  of  Clodomir  and  murder  of  hia  sons 
— Conquest  of  Tbiuringia — Ostrogothic  possessions  in  Gaul 
relinquished  to  the  Franks— Bavaria  and  Swabia  recognize 
the  Frankish  sovereignty — Death  of  Theodoric  and  of  his  son 
— Death  of  Childebert — Clothaire  sole  king — Private  life  of 
the  Frank  kings — Death  of  Clothaire,  and  division  of  the 
kingdom  again  among  his  four  sons — Their  characters — 
Charibert — Guntram — Anecdote  of  trial  by  combat — Chilperic 
^Sigebei  t — Marriage  of  Sigebert  and  Brunhilda — Of  Chilperic 
and  Galeswintha — Fredegonda — War  between  Sigebert  and 
Chiljieric — Assaisiuation  of  Sigebert — Succeeded  by  Childe- 
bert II. — The  remarriage  of  Brunhilda — Fate  of  Merowig — 
The  pretender  Gundovald. 

The  details  of  the  history  of  the  Merovingian  period 
of  Frankish  history  are  extraordinarily  complicated; 
happily,  it  is  not  at  all  necessary  for  our  purpose  to 
follow  them.  We  shall  hope  to  be  able  to  give  a 
clear  and  intelligible  conception  of  the  general 
features  of  the  history,  which  is  enough  for  our 
purpose ;  and  there  is  a  superabundance  of  interest- 
ing episode  to  enliven  the  narrative,  and  to  help  to 


46  CHAELEiLA.GNE. 


fix  the  character  of  the  times  and  the  people  in 
the  reader's  memory. 

On  the  death  of  Clovis,  his  dominions  were,  after 
the  Gennan  custom,  dealt  with  as  if  they  had 
been  his  private  possessions,  and  divided  among 
his  sons — Theodoric,  Clodomir,  Childebcrt,  and 
Clothaire.  The  kin^jdoms,  however,  were  federative 
under  one  political  law,  and  had  a  common  as- 
sembly which  deliberated  on  the  common  affairs  of 
the  four  states.* 

It  is  worth  while  to  consult  the  map,  and   to 
take  a  little  pains  to  obtain  a  clear  idea  of  these 
divisions,  for  they  recur  again  and  again,  with  minor 
variations,   during   the   whole   of   the   subsequent^ 
history. 

Theodoric,  the  oldest,  had  the  lion's  share,  viz. 
Austrasia — the  Eastern  kingdom — the  home  of  the 
Frankish  nation,  with  some  isolated  territories 
in  the  south  of  Gaul.  His  capitals  were  Metz  and 
Rheims.  The  more  recent  conquests  of  Clovis, 
Neustria — the  Western  kingdom — and  Burgundy, 
were  divided  among  the  three  other  brothers.  The 
boundaries  of  their  territories  are  not  clearly  made 
out.  Clodomir's  capital  was  at  Orleans,  and  his 
territory  comprised  the  southern  part  of  Neustria. 
Childebert's  capital  was  Paris,  and  his  kingdom  was 
the  middle  part  of  Neustria.  To  Clothaire  fell  the 
eastern  part  of  Neustria,  with  Soissons  for  his 
capital  city. 

When  we  note  that  Theodoric  was  the  son   of 

♦  Chateaubriand,  "  L'Histoire  de  France." 


THE  MEROVINGIAN   KINGS.  47 

an  unknown,  but  doubtless  heathen  mother,  and 
that  he  ruled  over  the  German  portion  of  the 
Frankish  dominions,  while  the  three  sons  of  Clotilda 
ruled  over  the  Gallo-Romau  provinces;  and  when 
we  find  that  the  three  younger  brothers  were 
usually  associated  in  their  great  military  under- 
takings, while  their  half-brother  held  aloof  from 
them,  and  carried  on  independent  warlike  expedi- 
tions, we  shall  recognize  at  once  the  early  existence 
of  that  political  distinction  between  the  Teutonic 
and  the  Galilean  portions  of  the  Frankish  Empire, 
which  had  an  important  influence  upon  the  whole 
of  the  subsequent  history. 

The  career  of  Frankish  conquest  did  not  come 
to  an  end  with  the  death  of  Clovis ;  his  sons  con- 
tinued to  extend  the  boundaries  of  the  wide  do- 
minions he  had  left  them. 

At  the  outset,  indeed,  they  had  to  make  good 
that  which  Clovis  had  won.  Burgundy  had  re- 
asserted its  independence  at,  if  not  a  little  before, 
the  death  of  its  conqueror.  The  three  kings  of 
Neustria  combined  against  it.  Clodomir  died  in 
the  first  campaign,  and  his  brothers  at  once  divided 
his  dominions  among  themselves,  regardless  of  the 
rights  of  his  sons.  Two  of  these  sought  an  asylum 
with  their  grandmother  Clotilda,  who  was  living 
a  life  of  devotional  retirement  at  Tours.  The  two 
uncles  shortly  obtained  possession  of  them,  under 
pretence  of  restoring  to  them  their  father's  king- 
dom, and  then  gave  Clotilda  the  choice  whether 


48  CHAELEMAGNE. 


she  would  have  her  grandchildren  dealt  with  "  by 
the  scissors*  or  the  sword."  It  illustrates  the 
fierce  temper  of  even  the  women  of  these  Teutonic 
royalties,  that  the  queen-mother,  the  religious 
widow,  chose  for  her  grandchildren  death  rather 
than  degradation.  Clothaire  took  her  at  her  word, 
and  in  spite  of  some  feeble  remonstrance  from 
Childebert,  stabbed  them  both  with  his  own  hand. 
A  third  son  of  Clodomir  escaped  the  fate  of  his 
brothers,  entered  into  "  religion,"  and  is  the  reputed 
founder  of  St.  Cloud. 

It  required  several  further  campaigns  to  conquer 
the  Burgundians;  Gondemar,  their  king,  was  de- 
posed (a.d.  532),  and  the  splendid  country  east  of  the 
Rhone,  Avith  its  mixed  population  of  Latins  and  Bur- 
gundians, was  incorporated  into  the  Frank  empire. 

Childebert  made  war  on  the  Visigoths,  ostensibly 
to  avenge  the  insults  offered  to  his  sister  Clotilda, 
who  was  married  to  Amalaric,  king  of  the  Visigoths, 
and  whose  orthodoxy  exposed  her  to  persecution. 
Amalaric  was  defeated  and  slain  in  the  first  battle, 
and  the  whole  of  his  Gallic  possessions,  except  the 
narrow  slip  of  Septimania,  were  incorporated  into 
the  Frankish  Empire. 

Meantime  Thcodoric,  with  his  Austrasians,  had 
been  carrying  on  war  and  effecting  conquests  in 
another  direction.     The  origin  of  his  conquest  of 

*  To  cut  the  hair  of  a  Slcrovingian  piincc  was  to  dc grade  him 
from  his  rank  and  make  him  incapable  of  reigning — at  least,  until 
hia  hair  nod  grown  again. 


THE  MEROVINGIAN   KINGS.  49 

Thuringia  affords   one   of  those   anecdotes  which 
lighten  the  dry  details  of  the  naiTative. 

The  Thuringians  now  occupied  the  territory 
which  the  Franks  had  vacated  a  century  earlier, 
when  they  went  forth  to  the  conquest  of  new  seats 
in  Gaul.  Thuringia,  by  the  German  custom  of 
inheritance,  was  at  this  time  divided  between  two 
brothers,  Baderic  and  Hermanfried.  A  third 
brother,  Berthaire,  had  been  already  slain  by 
Hermanfried,  and  left  a  daughter,  Radegunda,  of 
whom  we  shall  hear  again.  The  wife  of  Herman- 
fried  was  Amalaberg,  a  niece  of  Theodoric  the  Great, 
the  king  of  the  Ostrogoths.  Ta£itusJhas.JtQli,jig  fv 
how  jthe, German  races  respected  their  women^.amL  I' 
took  their  advice  in  the  transaction  of  the  business.  i| 
of  life.  _  We  find  many  illustrations  of  it  in  this 
Merovingian  age,  in  which  women  took  part  in 
affairs,  and  exhibited  all  the  ambition,  political 
ability,  unscrupulousness,  and  cruelty  of  men.  The 
niece  of  the  great  Gothic  king  was  dissatisfied  with 
being  the  queen  of  half  a  petty  kingdom.  She 
had  often,  like  another  Lady  Macbeth,  tried  to  rouse 
her  husband's  ambition  against  his  brother.  One 
day,  when  the  king  and  his  companions  returned 
from  the  hunt  to  supper,  they  found  only  half  the 
table  covered  with  its  cloth  and  laid  with  its 
platters  and  cups,  while  the  other  half  was  bare.* 

*  We  are  reminded  of  the  border  chieftain's  wife,  who  served  up 
a  pair  of  spurs  for  her  husband's  supper,  as  a  hint  that  the  larder 
was  empty,  and  that  he  must  ride  on  a  foray  if  he  would  have 
meat  to  eat. 

£ 


50  CHARLEMAGNE. 


The  queen  replied  to  his  angry  questions  that  the 
king  who  was  content  with  half  a  kingdom  must 
be  content  to  have  half  his  royal  board  furnished. 
The  scoff  had  its  desired  effect.  The  king  prepared 
for  war  against  his  brother,  and  sought  the  powerful 
aid  of  the  Austrasian  king.  Theodoric  took  advan- 
tage of  their  civil  war ;  helped  Hermanfried  to  con- 
quer his  brother,  and  then  fell  upon  the  conqueror 
and  seized  the  whole  country  for  himself.  He 
planted  strong  colonies  of  Franks  in  their  ancient 
seats,  and  thus  gained  a  great  accession  of  strength, 
and  obtained  a  footing  in  the  heart  of  Germany 
which  had  subsequent  important  results. 

A  little  later,  when  the  Emperor  Justinian  was 
engaged  in  hostilities  against  Theodates,  the  king 
of  the  Ostrogoths,  both  sought  the  alliance  and  aid 
of  Theodoric.  The  Frank  took  the  pay  of  both 
parties.  He  took  the  money  which  the  emperor 
offered;  and  at  the  same  time  he  accepted  from 
Theodates  the  Ostrogothic  possessions  in  Gaul,  viz. 
the  country  between  the  Rhine,  the  Alps,  and  the 
sea,  with  part  of  Rhetium.  Shortly  after  we  find 
that  the  Bavarians  and  the  Swabians,  who  lay  be- 
tween these  Thuringian  and  Rhetian  acquisitions, 
recognized  the  Frankish  sovereignty. 

The  powerful  king  of  Austrasia  died  in  A.D.  547, 
leaving  a  sickly  boy  as  his  heir,  who  also  died  in 
six  years,  childless.  Childebert  was  now  a  feeble 
and  childless  old  man,  so  Clothaire  seized,  without 
opposition,  upon  the  whole  of  the  Austrasian  king- 
dom; and  when  Childebert  died,  five  years  after ward^ 


THE   MEROVINGIAN   KINGS.  51 

(in  A.D.  558),  the  whole  of  the  dominions  of  Clovis, 
together  with  the  great  additions  made  to  them  by 
his  sons,  were  reunited  in  the  hands  of  Clothaire. 

We  get  a  sufficiently  distinct  idea  of  the  private 
life  of  these  sons  of  Clovis.  They  retained  their 
Teutonic  preference  for  a  country  life,  and  their 
ancestral  manners.  Instead  of  taking  up  their  resi- 
dence in  their  capital  cities,  they  lived  upon  their 
farms,  where  extensive  but  rude  buildings,  arranged 
without  any  rule  but  that  of  convenience,  afforded 
accommodation  for  the  family  and  followers  of  a 
gi-eat  Frank  chief  Clothaire,  for  instance,  usually 
lived  at  Braine,  on  the  banks  of  a  little  river  a 
few  leagues  from  Soissons.  They  migrated,  -with 
their  families  and  household,  conveyed  in  great 
waggons  drawn  by  oxen,  from  one  royal  farm  to 
another.  In  short,  they  continued  to  live  the  rude 
ancestral  life  of  the  field  and  forest ;  they  adminis- 
tered the  affairs  of  their  kingdoms  with  no  lack 
of  sagacity  and  vigour;  they  were  often  absent 
on  warlike  expeditions ;  in  the  intervals  of  business 
they  hunted  the  great  game  which  abounded  in 
the  extensive  forests,  bear  and  wolf,  the  now  ex- 
tinct aurochs,  the  wild  cattle  and  stag,  and  they 
banqueted  and  caroused  with  their  companions. 

One  especial  feature  of  their  private  life  must  not 
be  omitted.  Tacitus  pra.ise,!^  the  purity  ja£— tL^ 
domestic  life  of  the  Germans :   but  the   Frankish 


kings  of  history  assumed  to  themselves  a  license 
as  unbounded  as  that  of  Eastern  sovereims  in  the 


62  CHARLEMAGNE. 


multiplication  of  openly  acknowledged  wives  and 
concubines ;  and  the  children  of  these  alliances  were 
regarded  as  all  equally  legitimate,  and  the  sons  as 
entitled  to  an  equal  inheritance  in  their  fathers'  pos- 
sessions, ^w^iie!_all  thedaughters  were_b2^jthe^alic 
law  equally  excluded  from  a  right  of  inheritance. 

After  three  years  of  sole  reign,  Clothaire,  the  last 
of  the  four  brothers,  died,  and,  as  at  the  death  of 
Clovis,  the  Frankish  dominions  were  again  divided 
by  lot  among  his  four  sons — Charibert,  Guntram, 
Chilperic,  Sigebert.  Charibert  took  the  kingdom 
of  Paris,  which,  extending  lengthways  from  north 
to  south,  included  the  towns  of  Senlis,  Melun, 
Chartres,  Tours,  Poitiers,  Saintes,  Bordeaux,  and 
the  towns  near  the  Pyrenees.  Guntram  took  the 
kingdom  of  Orleans,  together  with  the  Burgundian 
territory ;  Chilperic  the  kingdom  of  Soissons ;  and 
Sigebert  received  the  Austrasian  kingdom,  with 
the  addition  of  some  possessions  in  Auvergne,  and 
the  south-eastern  province  ceded  to  Austrasia  by  the 
Ostrogoths.  What  is  remarkable  in  this  division 
is  that  we  find  towns  belonging  to  one  king  in- 
cluded, within  the  territory  of  another,  and  some  of 
the  more  important  towns  divided.  Thus,  Paris  was 
divided  between  the  three  Neustrian  kings,  but  all 
three  were  bound  by  oath  not  to  enter  it  without 
permission  of  the  others.  Marseilles  was  divided 
into  two  between  Sigebert  and  Guntram,  and  Senlis 
also  between  Sigebert  and  Chilperic.  There  is 
reason  to  believe  that  the  land  and  the  towns  of 


THE  MEROVINGIAN   KINGS. 


the  conquered  provinces  were  treated  as  two  distinct 
subjects  of  division ;  that  the  lands  were  first  divided 
into  three  parcels,  and  then  the  towns  were  divided 
into  three  lots  according  to  the  value  of  their 
tribute ;  so  that  Paris  was  not  really  divided  into 
three  quarters,  only  the  tribute  it  produced  was 
divided  among  the  kings. 

In  the  portion  of  the  history  upon  which  we  now 
enter,  we  are  so  fortunate  as  to  have  in  the  contem- 
porary historian,  Gregory  of  Tours,  one  whoso 
pages  are  unequalled  for  vivid  incident  and  pictur- 
esque detail,  until  we  come  down  to  the  fourteenth- 
sentury  chronicler,  Froissart. 

The  different  characters  of  the  four  kings  stand 
out  well  defined  in  his  narrative.     Charibert,  the 
King  of  Paris,  appreciated  the  value  of  the  Roman 
civilization,   prided  himself  on  his   knowledge   of 
Latin,  and  of  Roman  law,  and  on  his  skill  as  a 
judge.     He  Avas  not  remarkable  for  much,  except 
perhaps  lor  the  number  of  his  wives.     But  he  has 
""an^'aSVeiititrous  interest  t' n-  us  Englishmen,  as  the 
Jathef^of  the  Bertha   who  was   married  to   King,, 
"Ettre^ert  ef'^jent  and  was  insti'umental  in  the  con;;, 
version  ofher  husband  to  Christianity,  as  her  great-^ 
"granT^Liiother  ClotiMa  had  been  in  the  conversion.-^-- 
]Clovis.     Charibert  died  after  a  six  years'  reign,  and 
his  brothers  divided  his  dominions  among  them. 

The  character  of  Kino;  Guntram  was  a  strange 
mixture  of  qualities;  rvrHiTjpi.rily  gentle  in  manner, 
timid,  pious,  almost  saintly,  he  was  su^ect  to 
sudden  out^rsis  o?  "tlie  feei'ce  old  Frankish  nature 


54  CHAELEMAGNE. 


in  him  in  fits  of  fury  and  deeds  of  violence ;  and 
he  indulged  in  the  unbounded  incontinence  which 
was  characteristic   of  his  family.    _^ti1]j  hp   ^^\_ 

^rnflTw>fjgt.roT)g  rfilJgious  IcE^n^ngs.  He^a§  a_ 
waiTn_friend  to  the  ^j]^\^J|.'^^\  r^'^TJ^f^lJiis  power 
wisely  in  episcopal  appointm£jii&,^jftl^,^ishops  £ql 
his  constant  advisers  in  affnirjij^  gjyl^^^^nnverspfl  and 
ate  with  them  witli  unusual  fainiliarit}',  Avas  I'cgulg^' 
in  his  attendance  at  divine  seivice  ;inJ  at  sermoas. 
Oregory  says,  "  You  would  ha\  c  tliuught  hiiiL_a 
priest  as  a\-c11  as  a  long."  "  Witlu^jriests  he  J^as 
like  a  priest/'  says  Fredegarius.  He  founded  a 
monastery  at  Chalons,  on  the  Marne,  in  which,  in 
imitation  of  the  Burgundian  king  Sigismund's 
foundation  at  St.  Maurice,j2e__mst^iiifid-iilia--Lmi^ 
PerenniSj  the  service  of  perpetual  praise.  There  is 
a  characteristic  law  of  his  commanding  the  observ- 
ance  of  Sundays  and  holy  days.     Xhe,^,£rankish 

_^Church.  in  spite  of  the  flaws  in  his  character,  enrolled 
his  name  among  her  saints.  One  anecdote  of  his  life  * 
contains  in  such  brief  space  so  many  curious  traits  of 
the  manners  of  the  times,  that  we  give  it  entire. 

"  The  first  year  of  King  Childebert,  which  was  the 
twenty-ninth  of  King  Guntram,  the  latter,  hunting 
in  the  forest  of  the  Vosges,  found  there  the  remains 
of  an  aurochs,  which  had  been  killed."  For  the 
urus,t  together  with  the  bear  and  wolf,  existed  then 

*  Gregory  of  Tours,  x.  10. 

+  The  European  bison,  or  aurochs,  still  survives  in  the  forests  of 
Lithuania,  Moldavia,  Wallachia,  and  the  Caucasus,  thanks  to 
Bevero  laws  for  its  preservation.  In  his  account  of  the  Black 
Forest,  Cajsnr  describes  the  species  (the  urus)  thus :  "  Thcj'  are 


THE  MEROVINGIAN  KINGS. 


in  the  wild  wooded  mountairis  of  the  country  of  the 
Franks.  "  The  keeper  of  the  forest,  being  severely- 
examined  as  to  who  had  dared  to  kill  this  aurochs 
in  the  royal  forest,  named  Chundon,  the  king's 
chamberlain."  It  would  seem  that  the  Merovingian 
kings  had  the  same  jealous  regard  for  their  wild 
bisons  as  William  the  Norman  had  for  the  deer, 
whom  the  Saxon  historian  says  he  loved  as  if 
he  had  been  their  father.  For  "  Guntram  gave 
orders  to  seize"  this  high  and  trusty  officer  of 
his  court  "  and  bring  him  to  Chalons  loaded  with 
bonds." 

The  accuser  and  the  accused  were  confronted  in 
the  presence  of  the  king,  and  as  Chundon  main- 
tained his  innocence  of  the  deed  of  which  he  was 
accused,  the  king  ordered  the  combat.  The  trial 
by  combat  seems  to  be  already  fully  estabUshed, 
with  all  its  usages.  "  The  chamberlain,"  being,  we 
suppose,  an  aged  man,  "  took  the  privilege  of  com- 
bating by  champion,  and  presented  his  nephew  to 

but  little  less  than  elephants  in  size,  and  of  the  appearance,  colour, 
and  form  of  a  bull.  Their  strength,  as  well  as  their  speed,  is  very 
great.  They  spare  neither  man  nor  beast  that  they  see.  They 
cannot  endure  the  sight  of  men,  nor  can  they  be  tamed  even  when 
taken  young.  The  people,  who  take  tliem  in  pitfalls,  assiduously 
destroy  them ;  and  young  men  harden  themselves  in  this  labour 
and  exercise  themselves  in  this  kind  of  chase,  and  those  who  have 
killed  a  great  number,  the  horns  being  publicly  exhibited  in  evi- 
dence of  the  fact,  obtain  great  honour.  The  horns  in  magnitude, 
shape,  and  quality  differ  much  from  the  horns  of  our  oxen.  They 
are  much  sought  for,  and,  after  having  been  edged  with  silver  at 
their  open  end,  are  used  for  drinking  vessels  at  great  feasts." — 
Cassell's  "  Natural  History,"  ed.  Prof.  M.  Duncan,  vol.  iii.  p.  35. 


56  CHARLEMAGNE. 


fight  in  his  place.  The  champions  presented  them- 
selves in  the  lists  ;  and  the  young  man,  having 
thrust  his  lance  at  the  keeper  of  the  forest,  wounded 
him  in  the  foot.  He  fell.  But  as  the  young  man 
drew  the  knife  which  hung  at  his  belt  to  cut  his 
throat,  the  other  pierced  him  in  the  belly.  Both 
fell  dead.  At  this  sight  Chundon  took  flight,  in 
order  to  seek  sanctuary  at  the  basilica  of  St.  Marcel ; 
but  the  king  cried  out  to  take  him  before  he  could 
reach  the  sacred  edifice.  He  Avas  seized,  fastened  to 
a  post,  and  stoned  to  death.  Then  Guntram,"  who 
was  a  strange  compound  of  Christian  mildness  and 
Frank  ferocity,  "  repented  greatly  that  he  had 
yielded  so  readily  to  anger,  and  had  put  to  death 
with  so  much  precipitation,  for  a  single  fault,  a 
man  who  was  useful  and  faithful  to  him." 

Chilperic  was,  perhaps,  the  most  able  of  the 
brothers.  He  had  strong  literary  tastes,  though 
Gregory  of  Tours  sneers  at  his  attempts  at  Latin 
poetry  for  being  full  of  false  quantities,  and  tells  us 
that  an  exposition  of  the  doctrine  of  the  Trinity 
which  he  wished  Gregory  to  adopt  was  heretical. 
He  invented  two  new  letters  to  express  two  sounds 
in  the  Frankish  speech  not  represented  in  the  Latin 
alphabet ;  and  we  learn,  in  the  course  of  the  story, 
that  he  took  an  active  interest  in  the  public  schools 
which  were  maintained  in  the  towns  of  his  do- 
minions. One  prominent  feature  of  his  character 
was  that  he  did  not  share  the  common  reverence  for 
the  Church  and  the  clergy.  He  did  not  hesitate  to^ 
say  that  one  bishop  was  foolish  an3lmJotEerproud, 


THE  MEROVINGIAN   KINGS.  57 

this  verbose  and  that  lusuriQug^^tbiajvgia  and,  that 
_ari:Qgant.  "He'was  accustomed  to  complain  of  the 
wealth  of  the  Churches.  "  Our  fisc  is  impoverished, 
while  our  wealth  goes  to  the  Churches !  Truly,  no 
one  reigns  but  these  bishops ;  our  dignity  is  earned 
off  by  these  city  bishops."  Few  clerks  in  his  time 
were  made  bishops ;  he  gave  the  sees  to  his  own 
creatures.  The  imagination,  says  Gregory,  can  sug- 
gest no  sort  of  debauchery  or  luxury  which  he  did 
not  practise.  Unjust  and  cruel,  he  killed  men  in 
order  to  obtain  their  wealth ;  he  had  the  eyes  of 
criminals  torn  out.  In  short,  Gregory  (who  clearly 
has  a  special  personal  dislike  of  him)  calls  him 
"  the  Nero  and  Herod  of  our  time." 

Sigebert,  of  Austrasia,  a  Frank  among  his 
Franks,  was  perhaps  of  a  more  solid  and  respectable 
character  than  his  brothers. 

The  chief  interest  of  the  period  gathers  about 
Chilperic  and  Sigebert ;  the  other  two  brothers 
played  minor  parts  in  the  story ;  or,  rather,  the 
interest  groups  itself  about  their  queens,  Fredegonda 
and  Brunhilda,  with  all  the  dramatic  interest  of  a 
wild,  grand  tragedy  of  days  when  human  passions 
were  more  vehement  and  more  unrestrained  than 
in  these  later  ages  of  civilization.  Our  next  sen- 
tence will  introduce  the  heroines  of  the  strange 
drama. 

The  King  of  Austrasia  did  not  indulge  in  the  low 
amours  which  were  a  feature  of  the  domestic  life 
of  the  royal  family,  but  sought  a  reputable  wife 
and  an  equal  alliance  in  the  family  of  Athanagild, 


58  CHAELEMAGNE. 


King  of  the  Goths  of  Spain.  Brunhilda,  the  younger 
daughter  of  the  Gothic  king,  had  beauty,  intellect, 
and  accomplishments,  and  was  worthy  to  be  the 
bride  of  a  great  king. 
^ ,  The  mayor  of  the  palace  (it  is  the  first  time  we 
read  of  such  an  oflScial)  was  sent  on  an  embassy 
into  Spain  to  demand  her  in  marriage,  and  brought 
the  young  lady  safely  to  her  bridegroom  at  Metz. 
The  Roman  man  of  letters  and  poet,  Venantius 
Fortunatus — whom  we  shall  have  to  say  more 
about  hereafter — was  present  at  the  Austrasian 
court  at  the  time  of  the  marriage,  and  composed  an 
Epithalamium  in  honour  of  the  occasion. 

His  brother's  example  fired  Chilperic  with  the 
resolve  to  put  away  his  low  loves  and  contract  a 
royal  marriage.  Brunhilda  had  an  elder  sister, 
Galeswintha;  Chilperic  in  turn  sent  an  embassy 
to  Spain,  and  demanded  her  hand  in  marriage,  pro- 
mising to  break  ofi"  all  other  connections,  and  to 
give  her  the  sole  rule  of  his  heart  and  house.  The 
historian  draws  a  touching  picture  of  the  grief  of 
Galeswintha  and  the  sympathy  of  her  mother ;  of 
the  delays  they  begged  for ;  how  the  mother  started 
to  accompany  her  daughter  a  little  way  on  her 
journey,  but  could  not  bear  to  pai-t  with  her,  and 
so  travelled  with  her  all  day;  and  again  next 
morning  would  go  a  little  way,  and  again  could 
not  part  with  her,  and  so  travelled  with  her  across 
Spain;  and  then  the  weeping  women  were  only 
parted  by  the  chief  of  the  Gothic  escort,  who 
would  not  suffer  the  queen  to  encounter  the  dangers 


THE  MEROVINGIAN   KINGS.  59 

which  would  have  attended  her  return  through  the 
passes  of  the  Pyrenees.* 

The  fears  of  the  women  were  not  groundless.  In 
a  short  time  Chilperic  grew  tired  of  his  royal  bride, 
and  of  a  respectable  domestic  life.  Fredegonda,  a 
giii  of  Frank  race,  one  of  his  former  mistresses, 
regained  her  influence  over  him.  Galeswintha,  neg- 
lected by  her  husband,  and  insulted  by  her  rival, 
demanded  to  be  allowed  to  retui-n  to  her  father.  A 
short  time  afterwards  she  was  found  strancjled  in 
bed ;  and  rumour  said  that  Fredegonda  had  ordered, 
and  Chilperic  had  connived  at,  her  murder. 

Brunhilda  demanded  justice  on  her  sister's  mur- 
derers. King  Guntram,  as  head  of  the  Merovingian 
family,  summoned  a  meeting  of  the  Mai,  the  assem- 
bly of  elders.  Before  this  popular  court  of  justice  of 
the  nation  of  the  Franks,  King  Sigebert  accused  his 
brother,  King  Chilperic,  of  the  murder  of  his  wife's 
sister,  the  hapless  Galeswintha ;  and  both  agreed  to 
abide  by  the  decision  of  the  court.  Under  the 
Teutonic  laws  the  principle  of  compounding  for  a 
homicide  by  a  fine  to   the  relations  of  the  dead 

*  Our  sympathy  wnth  the  queen-mother  is  Bomewhat  moderated 
by  the  knowledge  of  her  subsequent  history.  After  the  death 
of  King  Athanagild,  she  married  his  brother  and  successor,  Leuge- 
vild,  and  raised  a  persecution  against  the  orthodox  in  Spain.  It 
was  she  who  cruelly  ill-treated  her  orthodox  granddaughter  Frede- 
gonda (daughter  of  Sigebert  and  Brunhilda),  married  to  the 
young  Gothic  prince  Ermengild  who  had  embraced  the  orthodox 
faith.  Ermengild  rebelled,  and  was  put  to  death.  On  the  death 
of  Leugevild,  his  son  Keccared  succeeded  him,  avowed  himself  a 
Catholic,  and  at  the  Synod  of  Toledo,  a.d.  589,  attended  by  seventy 
bishops,  established  the  orthodox  faith  in  Spain. 


60  CHAELEMAGNE. 


held  a  prominent  place.  The  elders  of  the  Franks 
settled  the  controversy  between  the  kings  on  this 
principle,  by  giving  sentence  that  Chilperic  should 
forfeit  Galeswintha's  dowry  to  her  sister  Brunhilda. 

This  was  the  beffinning  of  the  long:  hatred  be- 
tween  the  two  queens,  which  forms  the  clue  to  the 
politics  of  the  subsequent  period.  Happily,  it  is 
not  necessary  for  us  to  enter  into  a  history  of  the 
complicated  civil  contentions  which  followed.  We 
can  give  the  general  character  of  them  in  a  sentence : 
"  Nothing  in  the  joint  reigns  of  Sigebert,  Chilperic, 
and  Guntram  is  more  astonishing  and  perplexing 
to  the  reader  than  the  suddenness  with  which  they 
form  and  dissolve  alliances  with  one  another — the 
fickleness  of  their  mutual  friendships  and  the 
placability  of  their  enmities.  Within  the  space 
of  ten  years  we  find  Guntram  and  Childebert  allied 
against  Chilperic,  Chilperic  and  Childebert  against 
Guntram,  and  Guntram  and  Chilperic  against 
Childebert,  and  the  parts  were  changed  more  than 
once  during  this  period."  * 

Still,  the  general  character  of  the  civil  war  is 
that  it  was  a  contest  between  the  powerful  Aus- 
trasian  king,  stimulated  to  action  by  Brunhilda 
seeking  vengeance  for  her  murdered  sister's  "wrongs, 
and  the  talented,  versatile  Chilperic,  influenced  by 
the  beautiful  demon  Fredegonda. 

The  war  between  the  brothers  reached  its  climax 
when  Sigebert  invaded  Neu  stria,  for  the  second 
time,  with  an  irresistible  anny  composed  not  only 
•  Perry's  «  Franks,"  p.  142. 


THE   MEROVINGIAN  KINGS,  61 

of  Franks,  but  also  of  the  kindred  nations,  still  bar- 
barian and  heathen,  who  acknowledged  his  sove- 
reignty. It  was  like  a  second  barbarian  invasion  of 
the  Gallic  province.  The  Neustrians  were  unable 
to  resist  it ;  and,  to  arrest  the  ruin  which  threatened 
them,  agreed  to  abandon  Chilperic  and  choose  Sige- 
bert  for  their  king. 

The  ceremony  was  arranged  to  take  place  at 
Vitry,  near  Tournai,  on  the  border-line  between 
the  country  which  was  settled  by  Franks,  and  the 
country  of  which  the  Franks  held  military  occupa- 
tion. Brunhilda  had  accompanied  her  lord,  with 
her  children  and  her  treasures,  to  share  his  triumph. 
Chilperic  was  blockaded  in  the  neighbouring  city 
of  Toui'nai  with  Fredegonda,  deserted  by  his 
subjects,  and  with  no  hope  of  escaping  capture  and 
death. 

Germanus,  Bishop  of  Paris,  in  vain  interposed  in 
the  interests  of  peace.  Prevented  by  sickness  from 
joining  the  municipal  and  ecclesiastical  magnates 
in  their  reception  of  Brunhilda  into  their  city,  he 
addressed  a  letter  to  her,  which  still  remains,  in 
which  he  endeavours  to  enlist  her  interest  on  the 
side  of  peace ;  and  prays  her,  like  another  Esthei", 
to  use  her  wifely  influence  with  the  king.  He 
points  out  how  the  kings,  in  fighting  against  each 
other,  were  injuring  themselves.  He  concludes, 
yainst  the  man  wha  could  lay  asidejill  fraternal. 
aflection,  who  could  desjpise  the  counselsof  ajwife, 
_and_refose_to"arcEiovidedo;e  the^truthj^^afl^.^^  pro- 
phets raise  their  voices,  aU  the  apostles  ciixse  him,^ 


62  CHAELEMAGNE. 


and  God  Himself,  the  All-powerful,  wiU  judge  him." 
As  Sigebert  passed  out  of  Paris  on  his  way  to 
Vitry,  to  be  elected  King  of  the  Neustrian  Franks, 
Germanus  appeared  before  him  in  the  midst  of  the 
warriors,  and  made  a  last  attempt  to  divert  him 
from  his  intention,  threatening  in  prophetic  strain 
that  if  he  persisted  in  going  to  seek  his  brother's 
death,  he  himself  should  die. 

While  Chilperic  sullenly  awaited  the  apparently 
inevitable  end,  the  wicked  genius  of  Fredegonda 
in  a  moment  reversed  the  situation ;  Sigebert  was 
assassinated  in  the  midst  of  his  victorious  army  by 
two  men  sent  by  Fredegonda.  The  Austrasians  at 
once  dispersed  and  returned  home,  each  to  look 
after  his  own  interests.  The  subjects  of  Chilperic, 
relieved  from  their  fears,  returned  to  their  alle- 
giance, and  some  principal  nobles  of  the  Austrasians 
came  over  to  his  side.  Brunhilda  was  seized  in 
Paris,  with  her  daughters  and  her  treasures.  Her 
son  Childebert  had  been  earned  out  of  the  city  in 
a  basket,  and  arrived  safely  at  Metz,  where  he  was 
at  once  elected  as  his  father's  successor  in  the 
kingdom  of  Austrasia.  Cliilperic  seized  the  treasure 
of  Brunhilda,  but  treated  her  with  consideration, 
and  assigned  Rouen  as  her  residence. 

Here  occurs  another  of  the  romantic  episodes  in 
which  the  history  abounds,  Merowig,  the  son  of 
Chilperic,  had  seen  Brunhilda  in  Paris  and  fallen 
in  love  with  her.  Sent  by  his  father  on  a  military 
expedition  into  Aquitaine,  he  had  instead  ridden 
off  to  Rouen ;   and   the  Bishop  Pretextatus,  who 


THE  MEROVINGIAN   KINGS.  63 

•yras  his  godfather,  and  had  the  affection  of  a  father 
for  him,  was  induced  to  marry  him  to  the  widowed 
queen,  notwithstanding  they  were  in  the  forbidden 
relation  of  aunt  and  nephew.  Chilperic  came  to 
Rouen,  The  couple  took  sanctuary  in  the  precincts 
of  the  little  wooden  church  of  St.  Martin,  built  on 
the  ramparts  of  the  town.  Chilperic  gave  them 
an  assurance  of  safety,  and  kept  his  promise.  But 
shortly  afterwards,  the  Austrasians  sent  to  demand 
the  widow  and  daughters  of  their  late — and  mother 
and  sisters  of  their  present — king,  and  Chilperic 
gladly  allowed  them  to  depart.  But  fearing  a  con- 
spiracy to  replace  himself  by  Merowig,  he  con- 
demned Merowig  to  have  his  hair  cut  and  to  be 
ordained  a  priest,  and  exiled  him  to  a  monastery 
near  Le  Mans.  We  shall  have  occasion,  in  another 
chapter,  to  relate  how  the  young  man  refused  to 
submit  to  this  sentence  of  civil  death,  and  fled  to 
Tours,  where  he  took  sanctuary  in  the  precincts 
of  the  church  of  St.  Martin,  and  what  kind  of  life 
he  led  there. 

The  end  of  the  story  of  the  misguided  young 
man  is  that,  escaping  from  his  sanctuary,  he  sought 
refuge  with  his  wife  Brunhilda  in  Austrasia,  but 
the  nobles  would  not  allow  him  to  remain.  After 
some  adventures,  he  was  induced  at  last  to  enter 
into  plots  against  his  father;  was  led  by  Frede- 
gonda's  intrigues  to  enter  his  dominions,  in  the 
belief  that  a  party  would  take  up  arms  in  his 
behalf,  but  was  entrapped ;  and  rather  than  sur- 
render and  risk  the  indignities  and  cruelties  which 


64  CHARLEMAGNE. 


might  await  him,  like  another  Saul,  bade  his  faith- 
ful brother-in-arms  to  kill  him,  and  so  perished. 

The  latter  part  of  the  reign  of  Guntfam  was  dis- 
turbed by  the  pretensions  of  Gundovald,  an  illegiti- 
mate and  unacknowledged  son  of  Clothaire.  Duke 
Guntram  Bose,  the  high-born,  reckless,  desperate 
adventurer  who  had  tempted  Merowig  to  resist  his 
father's  sentence,  and  who  so  often  appears  in  the 
stormy  history  of  the  time — Guntram  Bose,  on  a  visit 
to  Constantinople,  found  the  young  man  there,  and 
put  ambitious  designs  into  his  head.  It  would  seem 
as  if  the  court  of  Constantinople  encouraged  him, 
and  assisted  him  with  some  treasure;*  and  the  young 
Frank  was  accused  of  having  agreed  to  hold  the  ter- 
ritory he  might  acquire  in  dependence  on  the  empire. 

Duke  Mummolus,  the  patrician  of  Auvergne,  the 
most  famous  general  of  the  time,  embraced  his  cause, 
with  Duke  Waddo,  Bishops  Sagittarius  and  Theo- 
dosius,  and  others  of  the  great  nobles  of  the  south ; 
the  great  towns  of  the  south  also  opened  their  gates 
to  him,  for  the  whole  of  Southern  Gaul  would  gladly 
have  escaped  from  the  sovereignty  of  the  bar- 
barians of  the  north  and  west,  and  have  placed 
themselves  under  the  empire.  At  first  Childebert 
of  Austrasia  favoured  the  invaders'  pretensions.  But 
in  the  end,  Gundovald,  deserted  by  all  his  allies,  was 
taken  in  the  town  of  Comminges  and  put  to  death. 

•  His  coinage  diflfers  from  the  contemporary  Prankish  coinage, 
and  lends  countenance  to  the  belief  that  his  adventure  was  under- 
fciken  under  the  patronage  of  the  Byzantine  court.  See  C.  F. 
Keary  on  "  The  Coinage  of  Western  Europe,"  Numismatic  Chroji' 
ide,  New  Series,  vol.  xviii.,  p.  228. 


(     65    ) 


CHAPTER  VI. 
THE  MEROVINGIAN  KINGS — Continued. 

Struggle  between  the  royal  power  and  the  nobles — Death  of  Chil- 
peric — Succeeded  by  Clothaire  II. — Death  of  Pretextatus — 
Death  of  Gun  tram — Succeeded  by  Childebcrt  of  Ausfrasia — 
Death  of  Childebert — Succeeded  by  Theodebert  in  Austrasia,  and 
Theodoric  in  Burgundy — Death  of  Fredegonda — Her  character 
— Brunhilda  driven  to  Burgundy — The  two  brothers  unite 
against  Clothaire — They  go  to  war  with  each  other — Theode- 
bert slain — Theodoric  dies — The  Austrasian  nobles  inrite 
Clothaire — Brunhilda  and  the  Austrasian  princes  slain,  and 
llie  whole  of  the  Frank  dominions  united  in  Clothaire  II. — 
Cliaracter  of  Brunhilda — Death  of  Clothaire  II. — Succeeded 
by  Dagobcrt,  who  gives  Aquitaine  to  Charibert — Character  of 
Dagobert — He  gives  up  Austrasia  to  his  son  Sigebert. 

The  royal  power  of  the  descendants  of  Clovis  had 
gradually  grown  from  the  electoral  chiefship  of  a 
German  tribe  to  a  high  pitch  of  royal  prerogative. 
It  culminated  in  the  joint  reigns  of  Chilperic,  Gun- 
tram,  and  Sigebert.  The  kings  were  strong  not 
only  in  the  number  of  warriors  personally  devoted 
to  them,  whom  their  large  estates  and  great  wealth 
enabled  them  to  maintain,  and  in  the  obedience 
of  their  Gallo-Roman  subjects,  but  their  power  was 

F 


66  CHARLEMAGNE, 


also  deeply  rooted  in  the  superstitious  veneration 
of  the  common  class  of  Franks  for  the  sacred  blood 
of  the  long-haired  Merovings.  The  kings  rcimid 
the  loyalty  of  their  Franks  by  protection  from  the 
tyranny  of  the  privileged  and  powerful  class  of 
nobles  which  had  gradually  grown  up  together  with 
the  royal  power ;  nobles  who  possessed  none  of  the 
high  culture  and  refined  manners  of  the  Romano- 
Gallic  Patricians  whom  they  gradually  superseded, 
and  in  whom  the  chivalry  of  the  mediaeval  noble 
as  yet  lay  dormant;  men  of  strong,  um-estrained 
passions  and  turbulent  habits,  who  encroached 
upon  the  ancient  freedom  and  equal  rights  of  their 
countrymen,  and  resisted  the  royal  authority. 

Now,  a  popular  king  is  the  natural  defender  of 
the  commons  against  the  nobles,  and  the  commons 
are  the  king's  natural  allies  against  the  class  which 
oppresses  the  one  and  defies  the  other. 

The  royal  power  culminated  in  the  reigns  of 
Chilperic,  Guntram,  and  Sigebert;  but  by  tlie 
close  of  their  reigns  the  power  of  the  nobles  had 
become  strong  enough,  and  the  natural  growth  of 
political  ideas  had  advanced  far  enough,  to  lead 
them  to  the  policy  of  an  organized  opposition  to 
the  royal  power.  The  question  really  at  issue  was 
whether  the  royal  power  should  continue  to  grow, 
on  the  Gallo-Roman  model,  into  an  absolute  Im- 
perlum  over  a  nation  of  subjects,  or  whether  it 
should  be  restrained  and  restored  to  the  Teutonic 
idea  of  an  elective  chieftainship  over  a  nation  of 
freemen. 


THE  MEROVINGIAN   KINGS.  67 

The  death  of  the  powerful  Sigebert  and  the 
election  of  his  infant  son  to  the  throne  seemed  to 
offer  a  great  opportunity  to  the  Austrasian  nobles. 
The  leaders  of  the  party  of  the  nobles  were  ^Egidius, 
Bishop  of  Rheims,  one  of  the  most  powerful,  ambi- 
tious, intriguing  prelates  of  his  time ;  and  next  to 
him  Duke  Rauchling  the  Cruel — the  names  suggest 
an  alliance  of  the  Gallo-Roman  with  the  Frank 
aristocracy ;  they  sought  to  retain  the  infant  king 
in  their  hands  and  to  rule  in  his  name. 

The  political  ability  of  the  queen-mother,  Brun- 
hilda,  now  first  begins  to  be  conspicuously  mani- 
fested. With  great  courage,  ability,  and  constancy, 
she  maintained  the  rights  of  the  crown.  And  the 
political  history  of  the  Austrasian  kingdom  for 
the  next  thirty-eight  years  is  chiefly  a  history  of 
the  struggle  maintained  between  the  queen-mother 
and  the  nobles.  The  rights  of  Childebert  were 
sustained  by  his  uncle,  Guntram  of  Burgundy,  who, 
being  childless,  agreed  with  his  nephew  that  which- 
ever died  first  the  other  should  be  his  heir ;  while 
the  party  of  the  nobles  were  in  friendly  communica- 
tion with  Chilperic  and  Fredegonda. 

Chilperic  died  in  A.D.  584.  Public  opinion  at- 
tributed his  death  to  Fredegonda,  while  she  accused 
Eberulf,  the  king's  chamberlain.  The  queen  took 
sanctuary.  A  sort  of  revolution  ensued,  of  people 
who  had  been  wronged  in  the  last  reign  resuming 
their  rights.  For  Fredegonda  was  driven  by  the 
nobles   into   retirement  and   disgrace.     The   elder 


68  CHARLEMAGNE. 


sons  of  Chilperic  were  all  dead ;  Chramniis  he  had 
burnt ;  Clovis  Fredegonda  had  assassinated  ;  Mero- 
vcs  had  committed  suicide  for  fear  of  worse.  Only 
the  infant  son  of  Fredegonda,  Clothaire  II.,  re- 
mained alive.  The  great  nobles  placed  him  upon 
the  throne,  and  ruled  in  his  name.  But  the  restless 
genius  of  Fredegonda  did  not  sit  down  contentedly 
with  loss  of  power ;  and  in  retirement  and  disgrace 
she  could  still  wield  her  peculiar  weapons  of  in- 
trigue and  assassination.  She  hired  two  clerks 
to  attempt  the  assassination  of  the  rival  queen, 
Brunhilda,  and  her  son ;  and  a  strange  and  weird 
character  is  given  to  the  incident  when  we  read 
that  she  gave  them  some  drug  to  take  before  they 
made  the  attempt,  as  Indians  produce  a  blood- 
thirsty recklessness  by  eating  hhang ;  and  that  she 
promised,  if  they  failed   and  were   slain,  to   have 

nmdant  masses  said  for  tVJ^'  ''""^^ 

Another  revenge  was  more  successful.  Chil- 
peric had  had  Bishop  Pretextatus  tried,  for  his 
offence  in  marrying  Merowig  to  Brunhilda,  deposed 
and  banished ;  but  on  the  death  of  Chilperic  ho 
returned  and  resumed  his  see.  Fredegonda  sent 
one  of  her  servants  to  Rouen,  who,  concealing 
himself  in  the  sacrarium  of  the  cathedral,  on  the 
morning  of  Easter-day,  stabbed  the  bishop  mortally 
wliile  he  was  engaged  at  the  altar  in  the  celebration 
ofJiie-Eucharist.  King  Guntram,  as  head  of  the 
Merovingian  family,  thought  himself  called  upon 
to  bring  the  queen  to  justice,  and  sent  three  bishops 
on  an   embassy  to   the  nobles  who  ruled   in  the 


THE  MEROVINGIAN   KINGS.  69 

name  of  the  young  Clothaire,  to  demand  an  in- 
quiry into  the  murder  of  Pretextatus,  and  threaten 
war  in  case  of  refusal.  But  nothing  came  of  it. 
Some  neighbouring  Franks,  indignant  at  the  crime, 
rode  to  the  villa  of  Fredegonda,  and  one  of  their 
number  went  in  and  formally  summoned  her  to 
take  her  trial  before  the  Mai ;  but  the  overbold 
accuser  was  persuaded  to  drink  a  cup  of  wine 
before  he  departed,  and  fell  down  in  the  agonies 
of  death.  The  political  ability  of  Fredegonda 
enabled  her  shortly  to  recover  her  influence  in  the 
councils  of  the  young  king  her  son. 

On  the  death  of  King  Guntram,  A.D.  593,  Childe- 
bert  of  Austrasia  succeeded  to  his  dominions ;  this 
accession  of  power  seems  to  have  inspired  him 
with  the  desire  and  hope  of  obtaining  the  sole  sove- 
reignty of  the  Franks,  and  he  attacked  his  cousin 
Clothaire.  But  his  attempt  to  seize  Soissons  was 
foUed  by  the  skill  and  conduct  of  Fredegonda,  and 
a  bloody  and  indecisive  battle  left  the  situation 
unchanged. 

Three  years  afterwards  Childebert  died,  at  the 
age  of  twenty-six,  poisoned,  together  with  his  wife 
Faileuba.  His  eldest  son,  Theodebert,  though  ille- 
gitimate, succeeded  peaceably  to  Austrasia,  and 
Theodoric  the  younger,  only  nine  years  of  age,  re- 
ceived Burgundy  and  some  other  territories,  with 
Orleans,  as  his  capital.  Thus  Queen  Brunhilda,  as 
guardian  of  her  grandchildren,  became  again  the 
virtual  ruler  of  the  greater  part  of  the  Frank ish 
Empire,  while  Neustria  Avas  again  under  the  in- 


70  CHARLEMAGNE. 


fluence  of  her  implacable  enemy  and  hated  rival, 
Queen  Fredegonda. 

Under  such  auspices  peace  was  not  likely  to  con- 
tinue long ;  but  the  war  had  only  just  begun  when 
(a.d.  597)  the  fierce  hatred  of  one  of  the  rivals, 
Fredegonda,  was  stilled  by  the  hand  of  death. 

If  we  believe  one-half  of  the  stories  which  her 
contemporary,  Gregory  of  Tours,  relates  of  her — as 
it  were  incidentally,  and  without  any  appearance 
of  antipathy  or  passion — we  must  ascribe  to  Frede- 
gonda a  character  unsurpassed  by  either  sex  in  the 
history  of  the  world  for  cruelty  and  baseness.  The 
mistress  of  Chilperic,  she  waded  through  the  blood 
of  the  ill-fated  Galeswintha  to  the  kinsf's  marriagfe- 
bed;  and  was  the  evil  genius  of  the  king,  over 
whom,  notwithstanding  a  score  of  infidelities,  she 
never  lost  the  sway  which  her  beauty,  talent,  and 
energy  gave  her.  She  saved  herself  and  him  by 
the  assassination  of  Sigebert ;  she  sought  once  and 
again  by  the  same  means  the  life  of  Brunhilda 
and  her  son.  She  compassed  the  death  of  her  step- 
son, Clovis ;  she  half  strangled  her  own  daughter. 
She  procured  the  murder  of  Bishop  Pretextatus, 
then  handed  over  the  assassin  to  the  vengeance  of 
the  bishop's  friends,  and  poisoned  the  overbold 
freeman  who  ventured  to  summon  her  to  trial. 
"When  Count  L^ndaste  was  dying  of  his  wounds, 
she  would  not  let  him  die  in  peace,  but  had  him 
laid  on  the  ground,  with  his  neck  placed  on  a  log 
of  wood  and  then  beaten  till  the  little  remain.^ 
of  life  were  tortured  out  of  him.     We  do  not  care 


THE  MEROVINGIAN   KINGS.  71 

to  pick  out  of  the  history  all  the  murders  of  which 
she  is  accused.  She  brought  false  accusations 
against  all  who  displeased  her.  She  ground  the 
people  with  taxes.  "  A  moiety  of  her  crimes  would 
suffice  to  make  her  the  Messalina  and  Borgia  of  her 
age."  She  has  extorted  from  posterity  its  admira- 
tion and  execration. 

The  Austrasian  nobles,  though  for  a  time  kept  in 
check  by  the  vigour  and  skill  of  Brunhilda,  had 
never  ceased  from  their  intrigues,  and  in  a  couple 
of  years  (a.d.  599)  they  succeeded  so  far  as  to 
procure  the  banishment  of  the  queen  from  her 
grandson  Theodebert's  court  at  Metz.  Like  another 
Lear,  she  took  refuge  with  her  other  grandson, 
Theodoric  of  Burgundy,  and  there  followed  no  break 
of  friendly  intercourse  between  the  two  brothers  in 
consequence.  She  is  accused  by  some  of  the  his- 
torians of  encouraging  the  vices  of  Theodoric  in 
order  that  she  might  rule ;  but  the  same  historians 
show  that  Theodoric  required  no  encouragement  to 
vice.  It  may  well  be  that  the  aged  queen  neglected 
the  hopeless  task  of  trying  to  control  the  vicious 
life  of  a  Merovingian  prince,  and  incurred  the  ill 
will  and  ill  report  of  those  about  him  by  taking 
care,  at  least,  of  the  royal  interests. 

The  two  brothers  united  their  arms  against 
Clothaire,  and  dispossessed  him  of  the  gi'eater  part 
of  his  dominions.  And  they  also  waged  a  suc- 
cessful campaign  against  the  Wascones  (Gascons), 
in  the  south-western  corner  of  their  empire.     Then, 


72  CHARLEMAGNE. 


in  the  seventeenth  year  of  their  reign  (a.d.  612), 
the  brothers  disagreed.  Theodebert  began  a  war 
for  the  transfer  of  Alsace  and  Lorraine  to  his  do- 
minion. Theodorie,  however,  was  victorious.  Theo- 
debert was  taken  prisoner  and  sent  to  Chalons, 
where,  soon  afterwards,  he  and  his  infant  son  were 
put  to  death.  Theodorie  of  Burgundy  thus  added 
the  whole  of  Austrasia  to  his  dominions;  and  he 
proceeded  to  make  war  on  Clothaire  for  the  con- 
quest of  Neustria.  But  on  the  eve  of  battle  he 
died,  at  the  age  of  twenty-six,  leaving  four  sons. 

Queen  Brunhilda  did  not  wait  for  an  election  to 
the  vacant  throne  by  the  assembly  of  the  people, 
she  did  not  divide  the  royalty  among  the  infant 
children  of  Theodorie ;  but,  taking  the  course  which 
seemed  best  calculated  to  maintain  the  royal  power, 
she  placed  Sigebert,  the  eldest  of  the  royal  chil- 
dren, on  his  father's  throne,  and  would  once  more 
have  resumed  the  rule  over  the  greater  part  of  the 
Frank  Empire  in  the  name  of  her  great-grandchild. 

But  the  party  of  the  nobles,  headed  by  Pepin  of 
Landen,  and  Amulph,  Bishop  of  Metz,*  took  mea- 
sures to  turn  the  crisis  to  the  advantage  of  their 
own  political  party.  They  entered  into  negotia- 
tions with  Clothaire,  ofl'ering  to  elect  him  king  of 
Austrasia  and  Burgundy,  and  so  to  make  him 
sovereign  of  the  whole  empire.  Clothaire  accepted 
the  invitation ;  collected  troops,  and  took  the  field. 
The  queen  summoned  the  forces  of  Austrasia,  and 


*  Dae  apparently  representing  the  Frank  race  and  the  lay  nobles, 
the  other  the  influence  of  the  Chi^rch  and  the  Latin  race. 


THE   MEROVINGIAN    KINGS.  73 

marched  against  him.  When  the  two  armies  met 
face  to  face  (a.d.  613),  that  of  Austrasia  mutinied 
and  marched  away  without  striking  a  blow,  and 
the  Austrasian  royal  family  was  given  up  to  Clo- 
thaire.  Two  of  the  children  were  killed;  one 
escaped,  and  is  no  more  heard  of;  the  youngest, 
being  Clothaire's  godson,  was  spared.  The  aged 
queen,  now  seventy  years  old,  was  exposed  on  a 
camel  to  the  derision  of  the  camp ;  and  then,  bound 
hand  and  foot  to  a  vicious  horse,  was  dragged  and 
trampled  to  death.  It  was  one  of  those  horrible 
events  which  characterize  the  outbreak  of  the 
pent-up  vengeance  of  a  political  j^arty  against  an 
antagonist  whose  ability  has  long  delayed  their 
triumph. 

The  character  of  Queen  Brunhilda  has  been  the 
subject  of  much  dispute.  At  the  time,  of  her  mar- 
riage, every  one  *  praised  her  beauty,  her  talents 
and  accomplishments,  and  her  graciousness.  Her 
energy  and  political  ability  are  beyond  dispute. 
Gregory  the  Great  t  corresponded  with  her,  and  he 
praises  her  Christian  devotion,  uprightness  of  heart, 
skill  in  government,  and  the  careful  education  she 
bestowed  upon  her  children.  The  desire  of  ven- 
geance against  Chilperic  and  Fredegonda,  the 
murderers  of  her  sister,  no  doubt  injfluenced  her 
conduct.  CaUed  upon  to  rule  over  a  fierce  people 
when  intrigue  and  violence  were  the  modes  of 
ruling,  contending   against   a   domestic  faction   of 

*  Fortunatus  and  Gregory  of  Tours. 
t  Op.  Omnia  (Paris,  1705),  vi.  Ep.  5. 


74  CHARLEMAGNE. 


i 


turbulent,  unscrupulous  nobles,  doubtless  many 
deeds  were  done  by  her  command  wliich  we  may 
palliate,  but  which  we  cannot  justify.  "  Yet  through 
the  dark  veil  which  hostile  chroniclers  have  thrown 
over  her  character,  many  traces  may  be  descried  of 
what  is  noble,  generous,  and  even  tender  in  her 
disposition."*  Such  an  impression  of  her  power  and 
genius  did  she  leave  on  the  minds  of  men,  that  in 
after  times  everything  great  in  the  Austrasian 
kingdom — roads,  towers,  fortresses — were  assigned 
by  legend  to  Brunhilda. 

The  antagonism  of  Brunhilda  and  Fredegonda  is 
certainly  one  of  the  strangest  chapters  in  the  whole 
course  of  history;  and  it  is  one  of  the  mysteries 
of  Providence  that  Fredegonda  should  have  died 
peacefully  in  her  bed,  and  Brunhilda  a  death  of 
torture  and  ignominy. 

Clothaire  had  thus,  in  the  twenty-first  year  of  a 
reign  hitherto  marked  by  many  vicissitudes,  become 
sole  king  of  the  Franks.  But  the  royal  power  had 
entered  upon  a  new  phase.  It  was  not  Clotliaire 
who  had  conquered  Austrasia,  it  was  the  faction 
of  the  nobles  who  had  successfully  asserted  their 
power  both  in  Austrasia  and  Neustria.  Duke 
Werner  stipulated  that  he  should  be  nominated 
Mayor  of  the  Palace  for  life  in  Burgundy.  Clo- 
thaire's  young  son  Dagobert  was  made  King  of 
Austrasia,  and  Amulph  and  Pepin  ruled  in  his 
name ;  and  even  in  Neustria  the  principal  functions 

*  Percy's,  "  The  Franks." 


THE  MEROVINGIAN   KINGS.  75 

of  government  were  wielded  by  tlie  Major  Domus. 
The  nature  of  the  revolution  is  shown  in  the  fact  that 
in  the  course  of  the  following  year  (a.d.  614  or  G15), 
a  general  assembly  of  the  nobles  of  the  kingdom, 
ecclesiastical  *  and  lay,  was  held  in  Paris.  It  was 
not  one  of  the  ordinary  assemblies  of  the  people  in 
the  Champ  de  Mai  ;  it  was  a  special  council  of 
the  nobility  of  the  whole  kingdom,  who  came  to 
formulate  the  conditions  on  which  they  had  ac- 
cepted Clothaire  as  their  king.  The  canons  and 
edicts  agreed  upon  by  the  council,  and  promulgated 
in  the  name  of  the  king,  were  a  kind  of  Magna 
Charta  intended  to  protect  the  Church  and  the 
people  from  the  abuses  of  royal  power.  We  can 
only  note  two  or  three  of  them.  The  people  were 
protected  from  the  oppression  of  alien  and  irre- 
sponsible officials  by  the  decree,  that  the  officers 
who  administered  the  provincial  governments  should 
be  chosen  out  of  the  places  submitted  to  their 
authority;  and  should  be  answerable  out  of  their 
own  property  for  abuses  of  their  office.  The  Church, 
seeking  to  protect  itself  from  the  evil  of  royal 
nominations  to  benefices,  obtained  a  formal  conces- 
sion by  the  crown  of  the  right  of  canonical  election 
of  bishops  by  the  clergy  and  people,  with  the  assent 
of  the  comprovincial  bishops  and  the  confirmation 
of  the  metropolitan;  but  the  crown  still  retained 
a  right  of  confii'mation,  and  even  a  reservation  of 
the  privilege  of  recommendation  of  a  candidate. 
The  most  important  of  all  the  concessions  extoi'ted 

*  Seventy-nine  bishops  were  present. 


76  CHARLEMAGNE. 


by  the  nobles  from  the  crown,  was  the  election  of 
the  Mayors  of  the  Palace,  who  had  gradually  come 
to  fill  the  functions  known  in  later  French  history 
by  the  name  of  Minister.  Warnacher,  the  Mayor 
of  Burgundy,  and  Rade,  the  Mayor  of  Austrasia, 
had  stipulated  with  Clothaire  for  their  tenure  of 
office  for  life.  It  was,  therefore,  only  after  the  death 
of  Rade  that  his  office  passed  to  Pepin  of  Landen, 

That  the  interests  of  the  lower  classes  of  the 
people  were  not  forgotten,  is  seen  in  a  decree  which 
made  the  bishops  the  protectors  of  enfranchised 
slaves. 

It  may  be  desirable  to  say,  in  elucidation  of  the 
importance  of  this  latter  enactment,  that  slavery 
occupied  a  large  place  in  the  constitution  of  the 
society  of  the  time.  The  domestic  institution,  which 
formed  the  very  basis  of  Roman  society,  was  not 
directly  interfered  with  by  the  barbarians  who 
settled  in  Gaul ;  those  who  were  slaves  before  they 
came,  continued  slaves  after  they  had  come.  Slavery 
existed  from  the  first  among  the  barbarians  them- 
selves. The  prisoners  taken  in  the  constant  wars 
of  the  time  were  all  condemned  to  servitude.  On 
the  other  hand,  the  condition  of  slaves  was  being 
gradually  changed  into  that  of  serfs.  And  the 
Church  preached  the  duty  of  kindness  to  slaves, 
and  encouraged  their  emancipation  as  a  meritorious 
action.  Constantine  the  Great  first  gave  the  Church 
a  kind  of  official  guardianship  over  this  most  help- 
less class  of  the  community,  and  the  formal  recog- 
nition of  it  by  this  Council  of  Paris  would  strengthen 


THE  MEROVINGIAN   KINGS.  77 

the  hands  of  the  bishop  or  the  priest  when  he  inter- 
vened between  the  oppressor  and  the  oppressed. 

Clothaire  II,  occupied  the  throne  of  Neustria  for 
half  a  century,  not  without  ability  and  dignity.  The 
almost  contemporary  anonymous  author  of  the 
"  Gesta  Dagoberti "  says  of  him  that  he  was  remark- 
able for  patience,  learned.  God-fearing,  a  great 
benefactor  to  the  churches  and  clergy,  generous  in 
alms  to  the  poor,  gracious  to  all,  and  full  of  pity,  but 
too  much  given  to  hunting  wild  beasts.  Eligius, 
his  famous  goldsmith  and  mintmaster,  calls  him 
inansuetus — gi-acious.  "  Gracious  "  and  "  remark- 
able for  patience  "  as  he  may  have  been,  yet  the 
chronicler  Aimon,*  a  monk  of  Fleury,  records  an 
anecdote  of  him  which  proves  that  he  still  had  the 
fierce  Frankish  spirit  in  him : — 

When  Clothaii'e  had  made  his  son,  Dagobert,  King 
of  Austrasia,  at  the  age  of  nineteen,  the  young  king- 
commenced  hostilities  against  Bertoald,  Duke  of  the 
Saxons ;  and  in  a  combat  with  the  duke,  he  received 
a  sword-stroke  in  the  head,  which  cut  away  a  piece 
of  his  helmet  and  a  lock  of  his  flowing  hair  with  it. 
Dagobert  sent  these  tokens  by  a  messenger,  demand- 
ing reinforcements  from  his  father.  The  messenger 
happily  found  Clothaire  hunting  in  the  forest  of  Ar- 
dennes. Sending  some  of  his  attendants  to  bring  up 
troops,  lie  set  otf  at  once  with  the  rest  who  happened 
to  be  with  him,  and  travelling  night  and  day, 
appeared  unexpectedly  in  the  Frankish  camp,  on 
the  bank  of  the  Weser,  which  divided  them  from  the 
*  Lib  vi.  c.  18. 


78  CHARLEMAGNE, 


Saxons.  The  Franks  welcomed  the  arrival  of  the 
king  with  loud  shouts.  Duke  Bertoald,  riding  to 
the  water's  edge,  asked  the  cause  of  their  rejoicing. 
They  told  him  of  the  arrival  of  the  King  Clothaire. 
Bertoald  replied  that  they  dreamed  that  which 
they  desired,  for  he  had  intelligence  that  Clothaire 
was  dead.  Clothaire,  who  was  sitting  on  horseback 
on  the  hither  bank,  hearing  Bertoald's  words,  silently 
took  off  his  helmet,  and  exposed  to  the  sight  of  all 
the  long  locks  of  the  Merovingian  race,  now  white 
with  age,  so  that  all  recognized  the  presence  of  tlie 
king ;  who  still  kept  silence,  the  more  to  impress  his 
foes  with  fear.  Bertoald  cried  to  him  across  the 
river, "  It  is  you,  then,  wild  beast  (hestia),  who  stand 
silent  there."  The  king,  enraged  at  this  insult, 
replaced  his  casque,  put  spurs  to  his  horse,  and 
plunged  into  the  river.  The  Franks  hastened  to 
cross  after  him.  Arrived  on  the  other  bank,  the 
king  rode  at  the  duke,  who  turned  and  fled,  crying 
that  he  acknowledged  Clothaire  as  his  master 
and  lord;  that  he  was  the  most  humble  of  his 
servants ;  that  however  the  affair  finished  it  would 
be  lamentable,  either  that  so  clement  a  master 
should  kill  his  slave,  or  that  the  slave  should  kill 
his  master.  But  the  old  warrior  still  pursued  his 
foe  in  glim  silence,  till,  getting  within  reach,  he  slew 
him,  cut  off  his  head,  and  carried  it  back  to  his  son 
and  the  other  Franks,  who  were  hastening,  full  of 
fear,  to  support  him.* 

After  a  reign  of  half  a  century,  Clothaire  died  in 
•  "  Etudes  Historique  sur  le  VII.  Si^cle,"  by  Ch.  Barthelemy. 


THE  MEROVINGIAN   KINGS.  79 

the  year  A.D.  628.  Dagobert  allowed  to  his  younger 
brother  Charibert  the  kingship  of  the  fair  province 
of  Aquitaine,  whose  government  his  descendants 
retained  long  after  the  Merovingian  dynasty  had 
lost  the  throne  of  the  Franks. 

The  reign  of  Dagobert  in  Austrasia,  under  the 
able  guardianship  of  Arnulf  and  Pepin,  had  been  a 
successful  one.  On  his  succession  to  the  Neustrian 
kingdom  he  took  up  his  residence  at  Paris,  and 
there  a  change  seems  to  have  come  over  his  cha- 
racter. It  was  probably  the  result  of  the  transition 
from  the  rude  Teutonic  court  and  people  of  Aus- 
trasia to  the  cultivated  and  corrupting  Latin 
civilization  of  Neustria,  and  the  exchange  of  the 
dominating  influence  of  Arnulf  and  Pepin  for  the 
adulation  of  the  courtiers  of  the  Latin  kingdom, 
acting  upon  a  disposition  inclined  to  magnificence 
and  gaiety.  St.  Ouen,  who  knew  him  Avell,  describes 
him  (in  his  life  of  St,  Eligius)  as  ardent,  handsome, 
renowned,  so  that  there  was  none  like  him  among 
all  the  former  Frankish  kings.  ("  Rex  Dagoberfcus, 
torrens,  pulcher,  inclytus,  ita  ut  nullus  ei  similes 
fuerit  in  cunctis  retro  Francorum  regibus.") 

He  became  magnificent  in  his  expenditure,  luxu- 
rious in  his  habits,  abounding  in  his  gallantries. 
At  the  same  time  he  encouraged  learning  and  art. 
Some  of  the  most  saintly  men  of  the  time  were 
attached  to  his  court ;  the  famous  St.  Eligius  was 
an  inmate  of  his  palace,  and  honoured  with  his 
friendship  for  twenty  years.  He  founded  the 
abbey  of  St.  Denis,  and  was  a  gTeat  benefactor 


80  CHAllLEMAGNE. 


to  the  Churches.  Among  the  contemporary  kings 
of  Europe  there  was  not  one  who  was  a  more 
powerful  and  magnificent  prince.  The  Parisians 
liked  the  gay,  free-handed  king  whose  expenditure 
enriched  as  his  magnificence  dazzled  them,  and  "  the 
good  King  Dagobert "  lives  to  this  day  in  the  popu- 
lar legends  of  France. 

In  the  latter  part  of  his  reign,  some  hostilities 
with  the  barbarian  tribes  on  the  Eastern  frontier  of 
the  Frankish  dominions  were  waged  with  ill  suc- 
cess, and  the  safety  of  the  Eastern  kingdom  was 
menaced.  We  see  the  poAver  of  the  Austrasian 
nobles  again  showing  itself  in  the  fact  that  at  this 
crisis  Dagobert  nominated  his  infant  son  Sigebert 
as  King  of  Austrasia,  and  placed  him  under  the 
guardianship  of  Cunibert,  Bishop  of  Cologne,  who 
had  succeeded  Arnulf  as  one  of  the  leaders  of  the 
party  of  the  nobles. 

Two  years  before  his  death,  at  the  assembly  of 
the  Champ  de  Mai,  in  the  presence  of  his  two  sons, 
and  of  the  bishops  and  nobles  and  people  present, 
Dagobert  published  his  will,  leaving  great  benefac- 
tions to  the  Cliurch.  Historians  have  gladly  assumed 
that  this  betokened  repentance  of  the  faults  which 
had  sullied  his  character. 

On  the  death  of  Dagobert,  in  a.d.  637,  he  was 
succeeded  in  Neustria  by  his  son,  Clovis  II.  But 
Dagobert  is  commonly  regarded  by  historians  as  the 
last  of  the  Merovingians  who  exercised  anything 
like  an  independent  authority,  and  all  his  successors 
are  stigmatized  as  Rois  faineants.     The  death  of 


THE   MEROVINGIAN   KINGS.  81 

Brunliilda  was  the  beginning  of  the  constitutional 
limitation  of  the  royal  power  of  the  Merovingian 
kings,  and  the  conquest  of  the  maj'oralty  by  Charles 
Marte]  may  be  regarded  as  the  real  commencement 
of  the  Carolingian  sovereignty.  But  the  passage 
from  the  one  condition  to  the  other  was  probably 
more  gradual  than  is  commonly  represented.  Gri- 
moald  is  described  as  paying  great  pereonal  deference 
to  the  king,  and  strenuously  maintaining  the  royal 
prerogative.  St.  Dagobert  II.  and  St.  Clovis,  at  least, 
were  not  men  incapacitated  by  a  life  of  luxury. 
The  history,  in  brief,  is  that  the  nobles  forced  on 
the  Crown  an  elective  minister ;  the  family  of  the 
minister  was  powerful  enough  to  make  tlie  office 
hereditary ;  the  hereditary  minister  gi-adually  thrust 
the  king  more  and  more  into  the  background  ;  and  at 
last,  at  the  end  of  a  century  and  a  half,  was  able  to 
thrust  him  from  his  throne.  What  underlies  and 
largely  helps  to  explain  the  whole  story  is  the  un- 
precedented fact  that  there  should  have  been  in  one 
family  a  succession  of  men  of  such  genius  and  ambi- 
tion as  Pepin  the  Elder  and  Arnulf  (joint  guardians 
of  the  Austrasian  kingdom,  and  connected  by  the 
marriage  of  their  children),  Grimoald,  Pepin  of 
Heristal,  Carl  Martel,  and  Pepin  the  king.  We 
must  bear  in  mind  that  the  current  estimate  of  the 
Bois  faineants  is  derived  chiefly  from  Carolingian 
writers.  But  we  catch  glimpses  here  and  there,  in 
lives  of  saints  and  the  like  works,  which  deal  with 
the  same  period,  which  show  us  that  the  whole  his- 
tory would  bear  a  different  aspect  if  told  from  the 

G 


82  CHARLEMAGNE, 


Merovingian  point  of  view.  We,  however,  need  not 
enter  into  the  details  of  the  history.  It  is  enough 
for  our  purpose  to  give  the  briefest  statement  of  the 
subsequent  history  of  the  Merovingian  kings. 

Clovis  II.  mari-ied  Bathildis,  who  is  interesting 
to  us  as  a  captive  Anglo-Saxon  princess  whom  the 
king  saw  in  the  house  of  his  Mayor,  loved,  and  mar- 
ried. Sigebert  IT.  of  Australia  died  childless  in 
A.D.  C54,  and  Clovis  II.  placed  his  son  Childeric  II. 
on  the  throne.  Clovis  himself  died  in  the  following 
year,  A  D.  Goo,  and  the  Queen  Bathildis  showed  that 
to  the  virtues  of  Radegunda  she  united  something 
of  the  talent  of  Brunhilda,  for  on  the  king's  death 
she  successfully  ruled  Neustria  as  the  guardian  of 
her  son  Clothaire  III. 

In  A.D.  664,  under  the  nominal  king  of  Neustria, 
Clothaire  III.,  the  mayor  of  the  palace  was  Ebroin ; 
that  of  Austrasia,  under  the  nominal  kinof,  Childeric 
II.,  was  Wulfoald.  Clothaire  III.  dying  in  A.D.  670, 
not  yet  twenty  years  of  age,  Ebroin  immediately 
placed  on  the  throne  the  third  son  of  Clovis  IL, 
viz.  Theodoric  III.,  that  he  might  continue  to  rule 
in  his  name.  But  the  principal  men  of  Neustria 
and  Burgundy,  who  had  }iot  been  consulted  by 
Ebroin,  went  over  to  Childeric  II.,  and  put  an 
army  in  the  field.  Theodoric  III.  and  Ebroin  were 
reduced  to  take  sanctuary  in  the  churches,  and 
then  to  receive  the  monastic  tonsure,  and  enter,  one 
into  the  monastery  of  St.  Denis,  the  other  into  that 
of  LuxeuU.  In  675  Childeric  IL,  who  had  made 
himself  odious  to  his  nobles,  was  massacred  with 


THE  MEROVINGIAN   KINGS.  83 

his  wife  and  one  of  his  children  under  age.  His 
brother  Theodoric  III.  was  raised  to  the  throne  of 
Neustria  by  the  very  same  persons  who  had 
dethroned  him  and  shut  him  up  in  the  monastery 
of  St.  Denis.  Austrasia  recalled  from  England 
Dagobert  II.,  son  of  St.  Sigebert,  to  whom  St. 
Wilfred  had  given  a  generous  hospitality.  In  674 
Ebroin  also  came  out  of  his  monastery,  and  pro- 
claimed a  pretended  son  of  Clothaire  III.,  under  the 
name  of  Clovis.  At  the  end  of  a  year,  he  caused 
this  pretender  to  disappear,  reconciled  himself  with 
Theodoric,  ^^diom  he  caused  to  be  recognized  as 
king  in  Neustria  and  Burgundy,  reserving  to  him- 
self the  real  sovereignty.  In  679  Dagobert  II.  was 
put  to  death  by  the  faction  of  Ebroin,  Avho  was 
himself  assassinated  by  a  Frank  lord  whose  destruc- 
tion he  had  resolved  upon.  In  687  the  Duke 
Pepin  of  Austrasia  gained  a  decisive  Aactory  at 
Testri  over  the  army  of  Neustria,  and  made 
Theodoric  III.  prisoner.  He  then  effected  a  settle- 
ment of  the  empire  by  recognizing  Theodoric  as 
sole  king,  on  condition  that  he  himself  should  be 
recognized  as  sole  mayor.  It  was  the  triumph  of 
the  mayors  of  Austrasia  over  those  of  Neustria ;  it 
was  the  triumph  of  the  mayoralty  over  the  crown. 
"From  this  time  forward,"  says  the  chronicler 
Erchambert,  "  the  kings  began  to  have  only  the 
royal  name  and  not  the  royal  dignity." 

Eginhard  gives  a  graphic  and  touching  picture  of 
the  prince  when  the  later  kings  had  really  become 
Bois  faineants : — "  All  that  remained  of  royalty  to 


84  CHARLEilAGNE. 


the  descendant  of  Clovis,"  he  says,  "was  the  title 
of  king,  the  flowing  hair  and  long  beard,  and  the 
throne  on  which  he  sat  as  the  representative  of  the 
Frank  monarchy,  giving  audience  to  foreign  ambas- 
sadors, and  repeating  to  them  the  answers  which 
had  been  previously  dictated  to  him.  Besides,  he 
possessed  only  an  insecure  pension,  and  a  single 
estate  which  supplied  him  with  a  habitation  and  a 
small  number  of  servants.  If  he  travelled,  it  was 
in  a  car  drawn  by  a  team  of  oxen  which  an  ox-herd 
drove  with  his  goad  :  it  was  thus  that  he  travelled 
once  a  year  to  the  palace,  to  play  his  part  in  the 
general  assembly  of  the  people  which  met  for  the 
consideration  of  public  affairs.  The  administration 
of  the  kingdom,  both  as  to  its  internal  and  external 
affairs,  was  entirely  in  the  hands  of  the  mayor  of  the 
palace. 


(     85     ) 


CHAPTER  VII. 

THE   ECCLESIASTICAL   HISTORY. 

Planting  of  the  Church  in  Gaul — Increase  in  the  reign  of  Decius — 
Council  of  Aries — Metropolitan  organization — Beginnings  of 
tlie  patriarchal  authority  of  the  Kouian  See— AVork  of  St. 
IMartin  of  Tours — Relations  of  the  British  and  Gallic  Churches 
— CiBsarius  of  Aries — The  position  of  the  bishops — Of  the 
counts — All  the  clergy  Latins — Gradual  introduction  of 
Franks — The  monastic  institution  introduced  by  St.  Martin  at 
Liguge' — By  Oassian  at  Marseilles — By  Honoratus  at  Lerins 
— Spreads  over  Gaul — Revived  by  St.  Benedict — Description 
of  a  monastery  of  monks— Account  of  the  possessions  of 
St.  Riquier — Monasteries  of  women — Relations  of  the  Church 
of  Gaul  with  that  of  Saxon  England. 

Christianity  appears  to  have  been  introduced  into 
Gaul  from  Smyrna,  by  way  of  Marseilles  and  the 
great  water-way  of  the  Rhone,  apparently  about  the 
.^mi^dle^ofthe  second  century,  when  the  interesting 
story  of  the  mar^ira'*oF~VTenne  first  gives  us  a  |\ 
glimpse  of  the  Churches,  apparently  recently  es- 
tablished, of  the  ancient  city  of  Vienne  and  the 
neighbouring  town  of  Lyons.    The  martyred  Bishop 


86  CHAELEMAGNE. 


y 


Pothinus  was  succeeded  in  the  see  of  Vienne  by  the 
iUustrious  Father  of  the  Church,  Irenseus,  the  pupil 
of  Polycarp,  who  was  the  disciple  of  the  Apostle 
St.  John. 

Gregory  of  Tours  tells  us  *  the  tradition  of  his 
day  that  in  the  reign  of  Decius,  i.e.  about  the 
middle  of  the  third  century,  seven  missionaries  set 
out  from  Rome  for  the  conversion  of  Gaul,  and 
founded  seven  sees.  Some  of  the  particulars  which 
Gregory  gives  are  inconsistent  with  known  facts, 
but  there  probably  was  a  missionary  movement  at 
this  period  which  strengthened  and  extended  the 
Church  in  Gaul.  It  is  probably  to  an  extension  of 
this  missionary  movement  across  the  Channel  that 
we  owe  the  first  planting  of  the  Church  in  Britain. 
The  close  relations  of  our  own  Church  with  that  of 
Gaul,  though  such  scanty  records  of  them  have 
come  down  to  us,  give  us  an  additional  interest  in 
the  history  of  the  Gallic  Church.  By  the  beginning 
of  the  fourth  century  more  than  twenty  bishops 
may  be  counted  in  Gaul.f  The  great  council  of  the 
West,  which  Constantino  summoned  to  detennine 
the  Donatist  controversy,  was  held  at  Aries;  and 
the  signatures  of  the  bishops  present  give  us  the 
names  of  the  principal  bishops  of  Gaul,  and  include 
three  from  distant  Britain. 

At  this  time  the  Churches  of  the  south  of  Gaul 
were  disturbed  by  a  controversy  which  has  con- 

*  Book  I.  §  28. 

t  De  Broglie,  "  L'Egliso  et  I'Empire,"  vol.  ii.  p.  95. 


THE   ECCLESIASTICAL  HISTORY,  87 

siderable  interest  a^  an  illustration  of  the  principles 
of  Churcli  organization.  Constantius,  Bishop  of 
Aries,  claimed  for  himself  the  dignity  and  rights  of 
primate  and  metropolitan  of  the  province,  instead 
of  Simplicius,  the  Bishop  of  Vienne,  on  the  ground 
that  the  Prefect  of  Gaul  had  lately  removed  his  \ 
residence  and  seat  of  government  from  the  latter  j 
city  to  the  former,  and  that  the  bishop  of  the  \\ 
metropolitan  city  "vvas  of  right  the  metropolitan 
bishop.  The  question  was  considered  at  a  synod  of 
the  bishops  of  Gaul,  assembled  at  Turin,  A.D.  397. 
The  reasons  alleged  by  Constantius  not  appearing 
clear,  the  synod  decided  provisionally  that  he  of 
the  two  bishops  who  could  prove  his  city  to  be  the 
metropolis  should  have  the  primacy  over  the 
province,  and  that  in  the  mean  time  each  should 
have  jurisdiction  over  the  Churches  nearest  his 
capital.  The  decision  recognized  the  important 
principle  that  the  organization  of  the  Church  is 
not  to  be  tied  up  by  ancient  precedents,  but  is  to 
be  modified  and  adapted  to  the  exigencies  of  times 
and  circumstances. 

A  little  later  we  find  Bishop  Celedonius  en- 
deavouring to  escape  sentence  of  deposition  at  the 
hands  of  Hilary,  Bishop  of  Ai-les,  by  pleading  that 
his  see  of  Besangon  was  in  the  jurisdiction  of  Yienne, 
and  not  in  that  of  Aries.  Celedonius  sought  the 
interposition  of  Zosimus,  the  Bishop  of  Rome,  who 
gladly  entertained  all  such  recoui-ses  to  the  p^rowi_ng. 
authority  of  the  see,  and^is  it  too  much  to  say  ? — 
seems  to  have  encouraged  them  by  usually  taking 


88  CHARLEMAGNE. 


the  side  of  the  appellants.  Similar  appeals  were 
made  to  the  same  pope  from  the  African  Church  by 
Coelestius  and  Pelagius,  and  by  Apiarius.*  These 
incidents  serve  to  mark  the  early  stage  of  the 
gi'owth  of  the  Papal  power ;  bishops  were  beginning 
to  appeal  to  the  Bishop  of  Rome  against  their  own 
metropolitans,  and  the  bishops  of  Rome  were  be- 
fjinning  to  assume  a  right  to  hear  and  determine 
such  appeals;  nnd  the  fact  that  such  illustrious 
Fathers  of  the  Church  as  Hilary  in  the  one  case, 
and  Augustine  in  the  other,  entirely  declined  to 
recognize  any  such  right  of  appeal,  and  fonnally 
lefused  to  accept  the  decision  of  the  Roman  prelate, 
is  enough  to  prove  that  no  such  authority  in  the 
Roman  See  had  hitherto  been  recognized  in  the 
constitution  of  the  Church.  We  note  in  these 
incidents  the  first  strong  ripple  which  marks  the 
existence,  and  strength,  and  direction  of  a  current 
of  religious  thought  and  ecclesiastical  tendency, 
which  gains  strength  and  volume  as  it  flows  down 
the  stream,  of  our  history — the  patriarclial  authority 
of  the  Roman  See.  At  a  later  period  of  the  history 
we  shall  see  the  beginnings  of  the  temporal  power 
of  the  Roman  See.  The  two  together  formed  the 
basis  of  the  mediaeval  Papacy. 

In  the  middle  of  the  fourth  century,  so  great  an 
impulse  was  given  to  the  spread  of  Christianity 
in  Gaul  by  the  labours  of  St.  Martin,  as  to  have  won 

♦  See  Augustine :  "  Fatlicrs  for  Euglish  Readors,"  S.P.C.K., 
pp.  201  and  2!  2. 


THE   ECCLESIASTICAL   HISTORY.  89 

for  him  the  title  of  the  "Apostle  of  Gaul."  The 
story  of  his  work  shows  that  the  worship  of  the 
deities  of  the  ancient  mythology  still,  down  to 
his  time,  prevailed  more  or  less  throughout  the 
country. 

In  the  course  of  another  century,  however — that 
is,  by  the  time  that  the  disruption  of  the  empire 
l)3<2:an — the  whole  of  Gaul  seems  to  have  been 
Christianized,  and  bishops  were  seated  in  most  of 
its  cities.  Clovis,  in  the  last  year  of  his  reign 
(a.d.  511),  summoned  a  council  at  Orleans,  which 
was  attended  by  forty-four  bishops. 

Ctssarius,  elected  Bishop  of  Aries  A.D.  502,  was 
the  greatest  Gallic  bishop  of  his  time,  and  of 
all  Gallic  bishops  was  second  only  to  Irenseus, 
Martin,  and  Hilary.  He  lived  through  the  political 
changes  which  transferred  Southern  Gaul  from 
the  Visigoths  to  the.  Franks,  and  down  into  the 
reign  of  Childebert.  Himself  a  scholar  of  the 
monastery  of  Lerins,  he  drew  up  a  Rule  for  monks, 
and  a  Rule  for  virgins  for  a  convent  over  which  his 
sister  Csesaria  presided. 

We  mention  Germanus,  Bishop  of  Auxerre,  Lupus, 
Bishop  of  Troyes,  and  Severus,  Bishop  of  Treves, 
among  the  most  distinguished  Gallic  prelates  of 
the  fifth  century,  only  because  they  took  part  in 
events  which  show  the  intimate  relations  which 
existed  between  the  British  Church  and  the  Gallic 
Church  from  which  it  probably  derived  its  existence. 
The  Pelagian  heresy  had  spread  to  such  an  extent, 
or  was  so  influentially  supported,  in  Britain,  that 


I 


90  CHARLEMAGNE. 


the  orthodox  party  sent  to  the  Church  of  Gaul  to 
ask  help  to  combat  the  heresy.  A  synod  of  Gallic 
bishops  deputed  the  two  former  bishops  in  429  to  go 
and  lend  the  weight  of  their  learning  and  reputa- 
tion to  the  support  of  the  truth.  At  a  synod  of 
British  bishops,  which  seems  to  have  been  held 
at  Yerulam,  their  arguments  and  their  authority 
seem  to  have  silenced  the  heretical  party  for  a 
time ;  but  in  447  Germanus  and  Severus,  after- 
wards Bishop  Treves  (Lupus  having  died  in  the 
mean  time),  paid  a  second  visit  to  Britain  on  a 
similar  errand. 

The  bishops  of  the  Church  at  this  time  held 
a  great  position  in  the  society  of  their  times. 
Not  only  did  the  bishop  hold  a  position  of  gi-eat 
s})iritual  influence  in  his  city  as  the  acknowledged 
head  and  ruler  of  the  whole  civic  community,  re- 
garded in  its  highest  aspect  as  a  Christian  Church, 
but  other  functions  of  a  civil  nature  had  in  process 
of  time  become  attached  to  his  office,  and  had 
gi'eatly  added  to  his  authority.  He  was  in  some 
sense  the  chief  magistrate  of  his  city.  For  the 
early  Christians,  acting  upon  the  precept  of  St. 
Paul,  not  to  go  to  law  before  the  unbelievers  (1  Cor. 
vi.  1-6),  had  made  a  practice  of  referring  their 
disputes  instead  to  the  arbitration  of  their  bishops. 
Christian  emperors  had  recognized  the  custom,  and 
given  legal  force  to  these  episcopal  decisions.  We 
learn,  in  reading  Augustine's  addresses  to  his 
people  of  Hippo,*  that  a  considerable  portion  of  a 
*  Augustine :  "  Fathers  for  English  Readers,"  S.P.O.K.,  p.  169. 


THE   ECCLESIASTICAL  HISTORY.  91 

bishop's  time  was  taken  up  with  the  fulfilment  of 
these  judicial  functions. 

Again,  something  of  the  old  power  which  the 
Tribune  of  the  People  possessed,  to  interpose 
between  the  people  and  the  ordinary  magistrates, 
had  fallen  upon  the  bishops.  The  opinion  of  the 
times  deemed  it  a  proper  exercise  of  their  sacred 
function  to  interpose  on  behalf  of  any  one  they 
thought  oppressed,  and  even  to  seek  remission  of 
the  punishment  of  those  who  had  been  justly  con- 
demned. His  house,  his  person,  had  privilege  of 
sanctuary ;  his  interposition  on  behalf  of  a  criminal 
usually  obtained  his  pardon,  or  at  least  some  mitiga- 
tion of  his  punishment.  In  the  centuries  of  which 
we  write,  the  bishop  was  regarded  as  the  official 
protector  of  his  people  against  the  Frankish  part  of 
the  population. 

Another  obvious  cause  of  the  great  position  of 

the  bishops  of  the  time  of  which  we  are  speaking  is 

the  gi-eat  wealth  of  their  sees.     Not  only  did  they 

derive  a  large  income  from  the  tithes  and  offerings 

of  the  people,   but  many  of  the  more   important 

sees  possessed    estates   so   large    as   to  place   the 

bishops  among  the  great  landowners  of  the  country. 

Some   of  these   estates   were   the   benefactions   of 

pious  donors,  both  Roman  and  Frank;*  but  the 

bulk  of  the  wealth  of  the  sees  had  arisen  from  the 

*  Clovis,  after  his  conversion,  gave  the  Church  of  Eheims  lands 
in  Belgium,  Thuringia,  Austrasia,  Septimania,  and  Aquitaine. 
The  Church  of  Besan^on  -was  a  sovereignty ;  its  archbishop  had 
for  liege-men  the  Viscount  of  Besan^on,  the  Seigneurs  of  Salra, 
Jlontfaucon,  Montferrand,  Dumes,  Montbeliard,  and  St.  Seine ;  the 


92  CHARLEMAGNE. 


custom  for  wealthy  bishops  to  bequeath  their 
private  possessions  to  their  Churches.  This  is 
sufficiently  illustrated  in  the  brief  biographical 
notices  which  Gregory  gives  us  of  his  predecessors  in 
the  see  of  Tours.  Thus  he  tells  us  that  Perpetuus, 
the  seventh  bishop,  a  man  of  senatorial  family,  was 
very  rich,  and  possessed  property  in  many  cities ;  he 
left  all  that  he  possessed  to  Churches,  and  particularly 
to  that  of  Tours.  He  was  succeeded  by  a  relation, 
Volusinius,  who  was  also  very  rich.  Verus,  the 
eighth  bishop,  left  his  possessions  to  the  Churches 
and  to  his  servants.  The  eleventh  bishop,  Dinifius, 
received  largesses  from  the  royal  treasury,  the  greater 
part  of  which  he  gave  to  his  Church.  The  twelfth, 
Ommatius,  of  senatorial  family,  was  very  rich  in 
lands  ;  he  left  his  lands  to  the  Churches  of  the  cities 
in  which  they  were  situated.  Thus  the  see  of  Tours, 
at  the  time  when  Gregory  wrote,  had  been  endowed 
with  wide  possessions  of  at  least  four  "  rich,"  and 
"  very  rich,"  senatorial  families,  besides  donations 
from  other  sources. 

Last,  but  not  least  important,  these  great  posi- 
tions were  usually  at  this  time  occupied  by  men  of 
the  highest  mark.  The  election  to  a  vacant  see 
rested  in  the  clergy  and  laity  of  the  city  itself,  and 
it  had  become  the  custom  for  the  city  to  look  round 
for  some  layman  of  high  rank,  wealth,  and  character, 
and  by  the  gentle  moral   compulsion  which  was 

Count  of  Burgundy  held  the  Seigneurics  of  Gray,  Vesoul,  and 
Cboze  of  the  Archbishopric  of  Besan9on  (Cliateaubriand,  ♦*  Analyse 
Baisonnd  de  rHistoire  de  France,  Scconde  Race  "). 


THE   ECCLESIASTICAL  HISTORY.  93 

customary  at  the  time,  to  force  upon  him  the  office 
and  duties  of  their  spiritual  Lord.  It  would  be 
easy  to  draw  up  a  considerable  list  of  bishops  of 
this  period  who  were  of  the  highest  families,  and 
had  held  the  highest  offices  in  the  state,  not  ex- 
cepting the  Imperial  office  itself,*  and  who  had  not 
thought  it  unbecoming  to  spend  the  latter  portion 
of  their  lives  in  the  episcopate.  Men  of  such  rank 
and  character  could  not  but  add  greatly  to  the 
prestige  of  the  episcopal  dignity  in  the  eyes  of  the 
whole  people. 

When  we  put  all  this  together — the  sacred  charac-  | 
ter  of  the  bishop,  his  gi'eat  wealth,  that  he  adminis- 
tered justice  in  his  city  and  ruled  his  wide  estates, 
coined  money,  was  the  recognized  patron  a,nd  pro- 
tector of  the  Latin  race  against  the  Frank,  and  when 
we  call  to  mind  that  the  Latins  were  still  under  the 
Imjierial  law,  and  that  the  king  was  especially  the 
king  of  the  Franks — we  shall  see  that  King  Childeric 
had  some  reason  in  the  complaint,  which  Gregory  of 
Tours  says  he  w^as  accustomed  to  make,  that  the 
wealth  of  the  people  was  diverted  from  the  royal 
treasury  into  the  coffers  of  the  Cliurch,  and  that  the 
bishops  were  more  of  kings  than  he  was. 

On  the  other  hand,  the  Bishop's  authority  in  the 
city  was  limited  by  the  authority  of  the  Count.  The 
count  was  an  officer  with  military  attributes  and 
dictatorial  powder,  whom  the  Frank  kings  appointed 
in  every  important  city  to  guard  the  royal  interests 
and  collect  the  royal  revenue,  without  any  care  to 
*  See  note,  p.  17, 


94  CHARLEMAGNE. 


regulate  his  functions  and  harmonize  them  with  the 
ancient  municipal  institutions.  The  bishop  and 
the  count  were  thus  pitted  against  one  another  in 
every  city,  each  with  large,  iU-defined  power.  One 
the  chief  of  the  more  numerous  Latin  community, 
the  other  the  representative  of  the  dominant  Frank- 
ish  power.  Probably  in  many  cases  the  bishop  was 
of  better  family,  of  greater  wealth,  and  of  far  more 
influence  with  the  citizens  than  the  count.  The 
count,  on  the  other  hand,  represented  tlie  royal  pre- 
rogative, with  aU  its  vague  terrors.  Ha])pily  for 
the  citizens,  there  was  no  royal  garrison ;  the  count 
had  only  the  handful  of  attendants  whom  he  could 
entertain  in  his  own  house.  Gregory  of  Tours  has 
given  us  a  very  complete  and  graphic  story  of  his 
own  relations  as  bishop  of  the  great  city  of  Tours, 
\vith  Leudaste  the  count.  When  the  count  is  seek- 
ing office  he  "  shows  himself  humble  and  submissive 
to  Gregory,  often  swearing  upon  the  shrine  of  the 
saint  (Martin  of  Tours)  that  he  would  never  do 
anything  contrary  to  the  laws  of  reason,  and  that 
he  would  be  faithful  to  the  bishop  in  all  things  as 
well  in  his  private  affairs  as  in  those  of  the  Church." 
"But  when  he  was  fau-ly  established  in  his  office  he 
was  so  filled  with  pride  that  he  would  enter  the 
episcopal  house  clad  in  cuirass  and  corselet,  armed 
with  lance  and  bow,  and  with  his  casque  on  his 
head,  having  confidence  in  nobody  because  he  was 
everybody's  enemy."  "  Wlien  he  sat  as  judge  with 
the  chief  people  of  the  place,  whether  laymen  or 
clerics,  if  any  man  stood  up  for  his  own  rights, 


THE  ECCLESIASTICAL  HISTORY.  95 

immediately  he  -went  into  a  rage,  and  vomited  forth 
insults  against  the  citizens.  He  caused  priests  to  be 
brought  before  him  bound,  and  soldiers  to  be  beaten 
with  rods,  and  committed  so  many  cruelties  that 
one  could  hardly  narrate  them."  He  committed 
many  wrongs  against  Gregory,  and  plundered  the 
goods  of  the  Church ;  and  at  length  entered  into  a 
wicked  plot,  seeking  by  false  witnesses  to  move  the 
king  against  the  bishop  and  to  get  him  deprived.* 

The  king,  Chilperic,  summoned  Gregory  to  trial 
before  a  synod  of  bishops  at  his  own  palace  of 
Braine,  and  one  incident  of  the  synod  is  that  Venan- 
tius  Fortunatus  read  an  inaugural  poem  to  the 
assembled  Fathers. 

The  plot  recoiled  on  the  heads  of  the  intriguers. 
Leudaste  was  deprived  of  his  office,  and  finally  was 
seized  and  slain  (as  we  have  elsewhere  had  occasion 
to  mention  f)  by  order  of  Fredegonda ;  and  the 
citizens  of  Tours  were  allowed  by  Chilperic  to 
choose  his  successor. 

We  have  many  other  notices  of  the  relations  of 
the  bishops  and  counts.  Maracarius,  Count  of  An- 
gouleme,  sought  and  obtained  the  episcopal  see  of 
his  city,  but  soon  after  was  poisoned,  and  Fronto,  his 
successor  in  the  see,  was  accused  of  the  crime.  Mar- 
tin, the  nephew  of  Maracarius,  obtained  the  count- 
ship  in  order  to  avenge  his  uncle's  death.  Fronto, 
after  a  few  months'  tenure  of  the  see,  had  been  suc- 
ceeded by  Heraclius.  The  count  accused  Heraclius 
of  retaining  in  his  service  men  who  had  been  guilty 
*  Lib.  V.  40.  t  See  p.  70. 


96  CHAELEMAGNE. 


of  his  uncle's  death,  and  of  entertaining  at  his  table 
priests  who  had  been  implicated  in  the  affair.  The 
enmity  between  them  increased.  The  count  began, 
by  little  and  little,  to  seize  by  violence  the  domains 
which  Maracarius  had  left  his  Church  by  his  testa- 
ment, pretending  that  they  ought  not  to  be  retained 
by  a  Church  whose  clergy  had  killed  the  testator. 
He  slew  some  laymen,  and  at  length  seized  and 
killed  a  clerk,  whom  he  accused  of  being  accom- 
plices in  the  murder.  The  bishop  then  interdicted 
the  count  from  entering  the  doors  of  the  church. 

Before  a  synod  of  bishops  assembled  at  Saintes, 
Martin  demanded  to  be  reconciled  with  Heraclius. 
He  promised  to  restore  the  Church  estates  he  had 
seized,  and  to  humble  himself  before  the  minister  of 
the  Lord.  Heraclius  assented.  But  Martin  only 
kept  the  word  of  promise  to  the  ear ;  he  despoiled 
the  estates  and  razed  the  buildings,  saying  that  if 
the  Church  would  have  them  back  it  should  find 
them  waste.  Heraclius  interdicted  him  anew. 
Then  Heraclius  died.  Martin  obtained  restoration 
to  communion  from  other  bishops.*  But  a  few 
months  afterwards  the  count  also  died  in  torments, 
recognizing  them  as  the  punishment  of  his  treat- 
ment of  the  bishop.  Gregory  concludes  his  story 
with  the  moral,  "  Let  all,  then,  wonder,  and  fear  to 
injure  bishops.  For  God  avenges  His  servants  who 
trust  in  Him."  f 

At  Gevaudan,  Palladius,  son  of  the  former  Count 

*  The  Chitrcli  in  those  days  seems  to  have  very  easily  restored 
men  guilty  of  the  greatest  crimes.  t  Gregory,  v.  37. 


THE   ECCLESIASTICAL   HISTORY.  97 

Brittien,  was  raised  by  Sigebert  to  the  office  of 
count.  Discord  arose  between  liim  and  Bishop  Par- 
thenius,  and  excited  great  enmities  among  the 
people ;  for  he  assailed  the  bishop  with  outrages 
and  affronts  and  injuries,  seized  the  goods  of  the 
Church,  and  plundered  its  servants.  The  count  and 
the  bishoj)  appeared  before  the  king.  Next  yearh 
Pa,lladiuswa3  deprived,  committed  suicicteTo'Pd  was  I 
not_buried  with^Christians,  nor  were  masses_sayLiJ 

^j-  hijTT_* 

'^  In  ^3ie  earlier  years  after  the  conquest,  all  ranks 
of  the  clergy  were  filled  by  Gallo-Komans.  The 
Franks  were  the  dominant  race,  and  were  Christian, 
but  they  were  new  converts  from  a  rude  heathen- 
ism, and  it  would  take  some  generations  to  raise 
up  a  "  native  ministry "  among  them.  Not  only 
the  literature  of  the  (Western)  Church,  but  all  its 
services,  and,  still  more,  the  conversational  inter- 
course of  all  civilized  and  Christian  people,  was  in 
Latin.  Besides,  the  Franks  were  warriors,  a  con- 
quering caste,  a  separate  nation ;  and  to  lay  down 
battle-axe  and  spear,  and  enter  into  the  peaceful 
ranks  of  the  Romano-Gallic  Church,  would  have 
seemed  to  them  like  exchanging  their  nationality 
for  that  of  the  more  highly  cultured,  perhaps,  but, 
in  their  eyes,  subject  race. 

The  Frank  kings  did  not  ignore  the  value  of 
education.  Clovis  is  said  to  have  established  a 
Palatine  school,  and  encouraged  his  young  men  to 
qualify  themselves  for  the  positions  which  his  con- 

*  Gregory,  v.  40. 


98  CHARLEMAGNE. 


quests  had  opened  out  to  them.  His  grandsons, 
we  have  seen,  prided  themselves  on  their  Latin 
culture.  After  a  while,  Franks  aspired  to  the 
magnificent  positions  which  the  great  sees  of  the 
Church  offered  to  their  ambition  ;  and  we  find  men 
with  Teutonic  names,  and  no  doubt  of  Teutonic 
race,  among  the  bishops.  For  example,  Gregory 
of  Tours  gives  us  a  list  of  the  bishops  who  met 
in  synod  at  Paris,  for  the  trial  of  Pretextatus, 
and  the  names  give  us  a  clue  to  the  proportion  of 
Franks  who  by  that  time  had  been  placed  in  the 
sees  of  his  kingdom  by  Chilperic*  The  list  is  as 
follows : — Of  Gauls,  Gregory  of  Tours,  Felix  of 
Nantes,  Dumnolus  of  Le  Mans,  Honoratus  of  Amiens, 
^therius  of  Lisieux,  and  Pappolus  of  Chartres ;  of 
Franks,  Raghenemod  of  Paris,  Leudovald  of  Bayeux, 
Romhaire  of  Coutance,  Merovig  of  Poitiers,  Malulf 
of  Senlis,  and  Berthramn  of  Bordeaux, 
i  For  a  still  longer  period,  few  Franks  entered  into 
the  lower  ranks  of  the  Church.  Not  only  did  the 
priesthood  ofifer  little  temptation  to  them,  but  also 
the  policy  of  the  kings  and  nobles  opposed  the 
diminution  of  their  military  strength  by  refusing 
leave  to  their  Franks  to  enter  into  holy  orders  or 
into  the  monasteries.  The  cultured  families  of  the 
cities  would  afibrd  an  ample  supply  of  men  for  the 
clergy,  and  promising  youths  of  a  lower  class  seem 

*  It  is  to  be  borne  in  mind  that  Gregory  tells  us  that  few  clerks 
were  promoted  by  Chilperic ;  i.e.  that  he  overruled  the  canonical 
mode  of  election,  and  arbitrarily  nominated  to  most  of  the  sees 
which  fell  vacant  iu  hia  reign.    Sec  p.  56. 


THE  ECCLESIASTICAL   HISTORY.  99 

already  not  infrequently  to  have  been  educated 
for  the  service  of  the  Church.  It  was  only  in  a 
later  period,  when  some  approach  had  been  made 
to  a  fusion  of  the  races,  that  we  find  Franks  enter- 
ing into  the  loAver  ranks  of  the  Church,  and  simul- 
taneously we  find  Gallo-Komans  in  the  ranks  of 
the  armies. 

There  was  a  wide  gulf  between  the  bishops  and 
tlie  other  orders  of  the  clergy.  The  bishops  were 
powerful  nobles,  almost  the  kings  of  the  Gallo- 
Roman  cities ;  the  habitual  counsellors  of  the  kings, 
their  names  appear  before  those  of  the  nobles  and 
counsellors  in  the  royal  edicts.  We  see  them  act- 
ing as  the  guardians  and  regents  of  a  minority ; 
we  find  them  at  the  head  of  the  faction  of  nobles 
which  controlled  the  royal  power.  Monks  wielded 
a  powerful  spiritual  infiuence.  But  the  name  of  not 
a  single  priest  appears  in  the  history  of  the  times 
as  exercising  any  influence  or  authority.  When 
at  length,  in  tlie  latter  part  of  the  Merovingian 
period,  the  bishops  were  little  other  than  great 
nobles,  with  little  of  episcopal  spirit  in  them,  they 
regarded  their  clergy  as  the  nobles  did  their 
homines — their  "men," — as  bound  to  obey  them 
and  support  their  interests  in  secular  matters.  At 
length,  simoniacal  appointments  to  the  gTeat  offices 
of  the  Church  became  largely  prevalent ;  a  worldly 
character  in  the  prelates  Avas  an  inevitable  con- 
sequence ;  and  that  as  naturally  led  to  clerical 
neglect;  and  that,  again,  to  a  general  religious 
deadness. 


100  CHARLEMAGNK 


Under  the  gradual  secularization  of  the  Church 
in  the  Merovingian  period,  the  monasteries  had 
the  greatest  share  in  keeping  alive  a  remnant 
of  vital  religion  among  the  people  ;  and  in  tlie 
gradual  decay  of  learning  and  art,  the  monastic 
institution  was  the  ark  in  which  the  ancient 
civilization  survived  the  deluge  of  barbarism,  and 
emerged  at  length  to  spread  itself  over  the  modem 
world. 

St.  Martin  introduced  the  monastic  institution 
into  Gaul  at  Ligug^,  near  Poitiers.  When  the 
bishopric  of  Tours  was  forced  upon  him,  he  founded 
another  house  at  Marmoutier,  on  the  bank  of  the 
Loire,  a  mile  above  the  city,  where  a  cliff  of  rocks 
on  one  side  and  a  bend  of  the  Loire  on  the  other 
enclosed  a  little  span  of  meadow  between  rock  and 
river;  and  there  he  lived  among  eighty  monks,  some 
dwelling  in  caves  in  the  rocks,  some  in  wattled 
huts  in  the  meadow.  These  two  monasteries  con- 
tinued to  be  the  capitals  of  ascetic  leligion  in 
Aquitaine.  So  rapidly  did  the  ascetic  spirit  spread, 
that  when  Martin  died  two  thousand  monks  fol- 
lowed him  to  his  grave ;  and  so  great  was  his 
reputation,  that  his  shrine  became  the  most  famous 
place  of  pilgrimage  in  France. 

Some  years  later,  the  monastery  of  St.  Victor  was 
founded  at  Marseilles  by  Cassian  (a.d.  3o0-447). 
Its  founder  had  been  a  pupil  of  Chrysostom,  after- 
wards a  monk  in  the  nionastery  of  Jerome  at  Bethle- 
hem. He  is  one  of  the  great  writera  on  the  ascetic 
life ;  his  "  Institutes,"  describing  the  regulations  and 


THE   ECCLESIASTICAL  HISTORY.  101 

observances  of  the  Eastern  monks,  formed  one  of 
the  chief  text-books  of  Western  monachism  in  sub- 
sequent ages.  In  the  Pelagian  controversy,  the 
theologians  of  Marseilles  were  learned  enough  and 
self-reliant  enough  to  take  a  line  of  their  own,  be- 
tween the  views  of  Augustine  on  one  hand,  and  those 
of  Pelagius  on  the  other;  the  Augustinians  called 
it  semi-Pelagianism,  but  it  is  possible  that  the 
disciples  of  Cassian  were  really  maintaining  the 
ancient  Catholic  views  on  the  subjects  under  dis- 
cussion. 

Honoratus,  in  A.D.  410,  fomided  another  famous 
monastery  at  Lerins,  one  of  a  group  of  rocky  islets 
off  the  southern  coast  of  Gaul,  opposite  the  well- 
known  modern  watering-place  of  Cannes.  It  was 
from  the  monasteries  of  Marseilles  and  Lerins,  illus- 
trious throughout  Christendom  for  learnincj  and 
piety,  that  the  Churches  of  Gaul  in  the  fifth  century 
drew  their  most  famous  bishops  and  priests. 

From  these  centres  monasteries  gradually  spread 
over  the  provinces  of  southern  Gaul,  and  formed, 
as  it  were,  oases  of  leai-ning  and  piety  and  peace 
amidst  the  confusion  and  turbulence  of  the  times. 

Romanian  and  Sulpicius  had  founded  a  monas- 
tery in  the  eastern  extremity  of  Gaul,  upon  those 
hills  of  Jura  which  separate  Gaul  from  Switzerland. 
King  Sigismund  rebuilt  the  monastery  of  Aja,  the 
monastic  metropolis  of  the  kingdom  of  Burgundy, 
and  himself  entered  into  it.  There,  we  read,  nine 
hundred  monks,  divided  into  nine  chori,  kept  up 
in  their  church  the  Laus  Pcrennis — the  service  of 


102  CHARLEMAGNE. 


perpetual  praise.  There  were  also  solitaiy  ancho- 
rites scattered  about  the  land,  some  of  whom  imi- 
tated, in  the  climate  of  Gaul,  the  wildest  austerities 
of  the  solitaries  of  the  Egyptian  desert.* 

At  the  end  of  the  fifth  century,  the  monasteries 
had  ceased  to  send  forth  illustrious  men  to  occupy 
the  first  rank  as  bishops  and  theologians ;  but  a 
great  revival  of  the  institution  was  introduced,  in 
the  beginning  of  the  sixth  century,  by  the  genius 
of  St.  Benedict. 

St.  Benedict  (480-540)  lived  in  Italy  in  the 
troubled  period  after  the  deposition  of  Augustulus. 
On  the  summit  of  a  hill  between  Eome  and  Naples, 
crowned  by  a  temple  of  Apollo,  then  still  fre- 
quented by  the  neighbouring  rustics,  he  founded 
the  famous  monastery  of  Monte  Cassino.  His 
piety  and  genius  attracted  a  gi-eat  multitude  of 
monks  from  all  quarters.  On  the  other  hand,  Monte 
Cassino  was  like  a  hive,  continually  sending  off 
swarms  of  monks  to  found  new  houses  all  over 
Europe.  Many  of  the  existing  houses  adopted  his 
Rule,  and  sought  for  his  monks  to  infuse  new  life 
into  existing  communities. 

Under  the  Merovingian  kings  the  monasteries  of 
Gaul  not  only  multiplied,  but  increased  in  wealth, 
and,  as  a  consequence,  suffered  like  the  bishoprics 
from  being  often  sought  by  ambitious  and  covetous 
men,  and  being  given  by  the  king  as  rewards  to  his 
followers.  But  we  must  remember  in  both  cases 
that  the  humble  priests  of  a  diocese  might  be  good, 

•  Some  notes  of  them  will  be  found  in  the  following  chapter. 


THE   ECCLESIASTICAL  HISTORY.  103 

pious  men,  doing  their  duty  in  the  streets  of  the  city, 
and  the  villages  and  farmsteads  of  the  country, 
although  their  bishop  was  neglecting  them  and 
livinor  the  life  of  a  secular  nobleman.  And,  still 
more,  a  monastery  under  the  actual  rule  of  a  holy 
prior  could  carry  on  its  carefully  regulated  life, 
more  scandalized  than  harmed  by  the  fact  that  its 
abbot,  in  his  separate  apartments,  was  living  a  very 
unmortified  life,  or  was  absent  on  one  of  his  farms, 
or  at  court,  for  the  greater  part  of  the  year. 

"  An  abbey,  in  those  times,  was  much  the  same  as 
the  dwelling  of  a  wealthy  patrician  Roman,  with 
the  different  classes  of  slaves  and  workmen  attached 
to  the  service  of  the  property  and  of  the  proprietor, 
with  the  towns  and  villages  depending  upon  them. 
The  abbot  was  the  master,  the  monks  answered  to 
the  freedmen  of  the  master,  and  cultivated  literature, 
the  arts  and  sciences.  No  difference  was  apparent 
to  the  eye,  even  in  the  outward  aspect  of  the  abbey 
and  its  inhabitants.  A  monastery  was,  as  to  its 
arcliitecture,  a  Roman  house ;  with  the  atrium  or 
cloister  in  the  middle,  with  little  chambers  around 
the  cloister.  And  since,  under  the  later  Caesars,  it 
had  been  permitted,  and  even  ordered,  to  private 
persons  to  fortify  their  houses,  a  convent  surrounded 
with  embattled  walls  entirely  resembled  the  more 
considerable  Roman  country  houses.  The  habit  of 
tlie  monks  was  that  of  the  rest  of  the  world ;  it  is 
only  because  the  religious  of  the  present  day  have 
retained  the  costume  of  that  age  that  it  appears  so 
extmordinary. 


104  CHARLEMAGNE. 


"  The  abbey,  then,  was  but  a  Roman  liouse,  but 
was  inalienable  by  the  ecclesiastical  law,  and 
endowed  by  the  feudal  law  with  a  kind  of 
sovereignty;  it  administered  justice;  it  had  its 
knights  and  its  soldiere ;  it  was  a  little  state  com- 
plete in  all  respects ;  and  at  the  same  time  it  was 
an  experimental  farm,  a  manufactory  (they  made 
linen  and  cloth),  and  a  school. 

"  One  can  conceive  nothing  more  favourable  to  the 
cultivation  of  the  mind,  and  to  individual  in- 
dependence, than  this  common  life.  A  religious 
community  represented  an  artificial  family  always 
in  its  manhood,  which  had  not,  like  a  natural 
family,  to  go  through  the  period  of  helpless  infancy 
or  helpless  old  age;  it  never  experienced  the  dis- 
advantages of  tutelage  and  minority,  or  was  troubled 
by  the  inconveniences  which  belong  to  female 
weaknesses.  This  family,  which  never  died,  ac- 
cumulated possessions  without  losing  any;  free 
from  the  cares  of  the  world,  it  exercised  a  powerful 
influence  upon  it.  .  .  . 

"  The  monasteries  became  a  kind  of  fortresses  in 
which  civilization  sheltered  itself  imder  the  banner 
of  some  saint ;  the  culture  of  high  intelligence  was 
preserved  there,  and  philosophic  truth  was  reborn 
there  of  religious  truth.  Political  truth,  or  liberty, 
found  an  exponent  and  a  defender  in  the  monk, 
who  searched  into  everything,  said  everything,  and 
feared  nothing.  Without  the  inviolability  and  the 
leisure  of  the  cloister,  the  books  and  the  languages 
of  the  ancient  world  would  never  have  been  trans- 


THE   ECCLESIASTICAL  HISTORY.  105 

mitted  to  us,  and  the  chain  which  connects  the 
past  Avith  the  present  would  have  been  snapt. 
Astronomy,  arithmetic,  geometry,  civil  law,  physic 
and  medicine,  the  profane  authors,  gTammar,  and 
the  belles  lettres,  all  the  arts,  had  a  succession  of 
professors  uninterrupted  from  the  first  days  of 
Clovis  down  to  the  age  when  the  universities, 
themselves  religious  foundations,  brought  science 
forth  from  the  monasteries.  To  establish  this  fact 
it  is  enough  to  name  Alcuin,  Anghilbert,  Eginhard, 
Treghan,  Loup  de  Ferrieres,  Eric  d'Auxerre, 
Hincmar,  Odo  of  Clugny,  Cherbert,  Abbon,  Fulbert. 
Music,  painting,  engraving,  and,  above  all,  archi- 
tecture, owe  infinite  obligations  to  the  Church- 
men.    • 

Some  idea  of  the  wealth  of  the  monasteries  may 
be  gathered  from  a  document  which  remains  to  us, 
of  a  little  later  date.  In  the  year  A.U.  831,  Heric 
rendered  to  Louis  le  Debonnaire  an  account  of 
the  possessions  of  the  abbey  of  St.  Riquier.  In 
the  town  of  St,  Riquier,  the  property  of  the  monks, 
there  were  two  thousand  five  hundred  manses  of 
laymen ;  each  manse  paid  two  pence,  thirty-six 
bushels  of  wheat,  of  oats,  and  of  beans,  four  fowls, 
and  thirty  eggs.  Four  mills  owed  three  thousand 
quarters  of  mixed  grain,  eight  pigs,  and  twelve 
cows.  The  market  each  week  supplied  forty  sous 
of  gold,  and  the  toll  twenty  sous  of  gold.  Thirteen 
bakehouses  produced  each  yearly  ten  sous  of  gold, 

*  Chateaubriand,  "Analjse  de  I'Histoire  de  France,  Seconde 
Race." 


106  CHARLEMAGNE. 


three  hundred  loaves  and  thirty  cakes  in  tlie  time 
of  the  litanies.  The  benefice  of  St.  Michael  gave  a 
revenue  of  five  hundred  sous  of  gold,  distributed  in 
alms  by  the  brothers  of  the  abbey.  The  chance  fees 
for  the  burial  of  the  poor  and  of  strangers  was 
valued,  one  year  with  another,  at  a  hundred  sous 
of  gold,  similarly  distributed  in  alms.  The  abbot 
distributed  daily  to  mendicants  five  sous  of  gold; 
he  maintained  three  hundred  poor,  a  hundred  and 
fifty  widows,  and  sixty  clerks.  Marriages  brought 
in  annually  twenty  pounds  weight  of  silver,  and 
the  decision  of  lawsuits  sixty-eight  pounds.  The 
street  of  the  merchants  (in  the  town  of  St.  Riquier) 
owed  the  abbey  every  year  a  piece  of  tapestry  of 
the  value  of  a  hundred  sous  of  gold,  and  the  street 
of  the  blacksmiths  all  the  ironwork  needed  in  the 
abbey.  The  street  of  the  buckler-makere  was 
bound  to  supply  the  covers  of  books ;  they  covered 
and  sewed  the  books,  and  this  was  estimated  at 
thirty  sous  of  gold.  The  street  of  the  saddlere 
supplied  saddles  to  the  abbot  and  the  brethren ;  the 
street  of  the  bakers  delivered  a  hundred  loaves 
weekly ;  the  street  of  the  squires  (servientium)  was 
exempt  from  all  charge.  The  street  of  the  cord- 
wainers  (shoemakers)  furnished  the  shoes  of  the 
servants  and  cooks  of  the  abbey ;  the  street  of  the 
butchers  was  assessed  each  year  at  thirty  gallons  of 
grease ;  the  street  of  fullers  made  up  the  woollen 
mattresses  for  the  monks,  and  the  street  of  tJie 
skinners  the  skins  which  they  needed ;  the  street  of 
the  vine-dressers  gave  weekly  thirty-seven  gallons 


THE  ECCLESIASTICAL  HISTORY.  107 

of  wine  and  two  of  oil ;  the  street  of  the  innkeepers 
sixty  gallons  of  beer  daily;  the  street  of  the 
hundred  and  ten  knights  were  bound  to  keep  up 
each  his  horse,  buckler,  lance,  sword,  and  other 
arms. 

The  chapel  of  the  nobles  gave  each  year  twelve 
pounds  of  incense  and  perfume,  the  four  chapels  of 
the  common  people  paid  a  hundred  pounds  of  wax 
and  three  of  incense.  The  offerings  presented  at 
the  tomb  of  St.  Riquier  were  worth  weekly  two 
hundred  marks,  or  three  hundred  pounds  of  silver. 
Then  follows  the  inventory  of  the  vessels  of  gold 
and  silver  of  the  three  churches  of  St.  Riquier,  and 
the  catalogue  of  the  books  in  the  library.  Then  a 
list  of  the  villages  of  St.  Riquier,  to  the  number  of 
twenty.  In  these  villages  are  certain  vassals  of 
St.  Riquier,  who  hold  the  lands  as  military  benefices 
(i.e.  on  condition  of  rendering  military  service). 
There  are  thirteen  other  villages  besides  without 
melange  de  fief,  and  these  villages,  says  the 
document,  are  not  so  much  villages  as  towns  and 
cities. 

Tlie  enumeration  of  the  churches,  towns,  villages, 
and  dependent  lands  of  St.  Riquier,  presents  the 
names  of  a  hundred  knights  attached  to  the 
monastery,  who  formed  around  the  abbot,  on  the 
festivals  of  Christmas,  Easter,  and  Whitsuntide,  an 
almost  royal  court." 

The  monasteries  of  women  filled  a  place  in  the 
society  of  that  day,  less  important  perhaps  to  the 
learning  and  civilization  of  the  future,  but  of  special 


108  CHARLEMAGNE. 


value  in  an  age  of  violence  and  change.  We  cannot 
doubt  that,  though  there  was  not  that  general  con- 
fiscation of  the  property  of  the  Gallo -Roman  pro- 
prietors which  some  have  supposed,  there  were 
many  illegal  acts  by  which  individual  Romans  were 
dispossessed  by  the  unauthorized  intrusion  of  a 
Frank  adventurer  seeking  his  fortune,  or  of  a 
Frank  noble  seeking  to  increase  his  estates.  It  is 
easy  to  imagine  the  number  of  high-born,  delicately 
nurtured  women  who  would,  under  such  circum- 
stances, be  suddenly  thrust  out  from  the  splendour 
and  refinement  of  a  Roman  villa  life,  and  cast  upon 
the  world.  To  these  ladies,  with  the  religious 
notions  of  their  time,  a  religious  house  offered  a 
peaceful  and  dignified  refuge. 

C^esarius  of  Aries  founded  a  nunnery  in  that  city, 
of  which  his  sister  was  the  first  head,  and  drew  up 
a  "  Rule  of  Life  "  for  the  nuns.  Half  a  century  after- 
wards Radegunda  founded  another  in  the  city  of 
Poitiers,  whose  history  is  so  fully  given  by  contem- 
porary writers,  and  so  curiously  illustrates  the 
manners  of  the  times,  that  it  is  worth  while  to  give 
it  at  some  length  in  an  episodical  chapter.* 

We  add  a  brief  note  on  the  relations  between  the 
Church  of  Gaul  and  that  of  Saxon  England.  When 
Gregoiy  the  Great  sent  Augustine  and  his  monks 
to  effect  the  conversion  of  the  country  in  which  his 
interest  had  been  excited  by  the  sight  of  a  group  of 
captive  children  (English)  exposed  for  sale  in  the 
Roman  forum,  he  furnished  them  with  letters  of 
*  Cliap.  xi. 


THE   ECCLESIASTICAL   HISTORY,  109 

commendation  to  some  of  the  leading  bishops  of 
Gaul,  and  to  Queen  Brunhilda,  and  the  kings 
Tlieodebert  and  Theodoric. 

But  when  they  learned  that  a  daughter  of  Childe- 
hert  v/as  married  to  Ethelbert  of  Kent,  and  that 
Bishop  Liudhard  was  at  the  court  of  the  Kentish 
king,  instead  of  trying  to  make  their  way  to  the 
Northumbrian  kingdom  from  which  Gregory's  little 
friends  had  come,  they  directed  their  steps  to 
Kent;  and  it  was  the  favourable  opening  thus 
already  made  by  the  Frank  princess  and  Bishop 
Liudhard  Avhich  caused  Canterbury  to  become  the 
head-quarters  of  Augustine's  missionary  work. 

Then,  when  Augustine  had  met  with  success  in 
Kent,  he  was  consecrated  bishop  of  the  Anglo- 
Saxons,  at  the  request  of  Gregory,  by  the  Gallic 
bishops ;  so  that,  so  far  as  our  English  succession  is 
derived  from  Augustine,  it  is  derived  from  the 
Church  of  Gaul. 

The  Gallic  Church  also  had  a  direct  share  in  the 
conversion  of  their  neighbours  and  the  planting  of 
the  Church  among  them.  King  Sigebert,  who  estab- 
lished the  faith  in  the  East  Anglian  kingdom,  had 
been  converted  and  "  admitted  to  the  sacraments  of 
the  faith  "  while  an  exile  in  Gaul,  and  as  soon  as  he 
ascended  the  throne  "  he  made  it  his  business  "  to 
make  all  his  province  partake  of  the  same  blessings ; 
and  "  being  desirous  to  imitate  the  good  institutions 
which  he  had  seen  in  France,  he  set  up  a  school  for 
youths  to  be  instructed  in  literature."  *     Felix,  who 

*  Bede,  "  Ecclesiastical  History,"  ii.  15 


110  •        ■         CHARLEMAGNE. 


was  consecrated  as  his  bishop,  was  born  and  or- 
dained priest  in  Burgundy,  before  he  occupied  for 
seventeen  years  the  see  of  the  East  Angles. 

In  the  West  Saxon  kingdom  *  also,  Bishop  Agil- 
bert,  who  laboured  for  some  time  among  them  plant- 
ing the  faith,  was  a  Gallo-Roman,  and  afterwards 
Bishop  of  Paris.  Wini,  who  was  bishop  of  another 
section  of  the  West  Saxons  at  the  same  time,  had 
been  ordained  in  Gaul.  Agilbert,  when  afterwards 
invited  to  return  to  the  West  Saxons,  declined, 
but  sent  his  nephew  Eleutherius,  Avho  was  con- 
secrated as  their  bishop  by  Theodore,  and  laboured 
among  them.  We  hardly  estimate  rightly  the  diffi- 
culty of  the  journey  whicli  Augustine  and  his  com- 
panions undertook  from  Italy  to  Gaul,  and  across 
the  breadth  of  Gaul,  and  across  the  Channel.  The 
circumstances  threw  the  Church  of  England  in 
Saxon,  as  formerly  in  Roman  times,  upon  its  more 
highly  civilized  Gallic  neighbour  for  help.  It  amply 
repaid  its  obligations  when,  subsequently,  it  sent 
Boniface  to  reorganize  the  Church  of  the  Franks, 
and  Alcuin  to  revive  learning  in  the  empire  of 
Charlemagne, 

*  Bedc,  "Ecclesiastical  History,"  iii,  7. 


(    1X1    ) 


CHAPTER  VIiT. 

ECCLESIASTICAL  ANTIQUITIES. 

Church  architecture — Sidooius's  description  of  the  new  church  at 
Lyons — A  Church  function  —Gregory  of  Tours's  description  of 
the  new  basilica  of  St.  Martin,  and  of  that  at  Clermont — 
Paintings  in  churches — Actual  remains  of  churches  -  Frag- 
ments of  sculpture,  etc. — Mode  of  election  of  bishops — Tlio 
election  of  a  bishop  at  Bourges — Sidonius's  speech — Illus- 
trations of  mode  of  episcopal  appointments  under  the  Mero- 
vingian kings  from  Gregory  of  Tours — Rogations — Solitaries 
and  recluses — Religious  widows — Custom  of  sanctuary — Life 
in  the  sanctuaries  of  St.  Martin  of  Tours,  and  St.  Hilary  of 
Poitiers — Belief  in  miracles — Reverence  for  relics— Pilgrimage 
— Impostures — Energumens. 

Since  the  illustration  of  the  religious  history  of  the 
period  is  the  especial  aim  of  our  work,  we  shall 
throw  together  here  a  few  particulars  which  do  not 
fall  into  the  stream  of  the  narrative,  but  Avhich  seem 
necessary  to  a  correct  conception  of  the  condition  of 
the  Church  and  the  religious  spirit  and  manners  of 
the  times. 

Churches. — Of  the  fabrics  of  the  churches  of 
that  time  we  have  quite  sufficient  information  to 


112  CHARLEMAGNE. 


enable  us  to  realize  what  they  were  in  plan,  mag- 
nitude, and  architectural  character. 

The  basilican  plan,  for  the  larger  churches  at 
least,  obtained  throughout  the  whole  period ;  costly 
material  was  employed  upon  them,  marble  columns, 
tesselated  pavements,  gilded  ceilings,  mosaics  and 
paintings  on  the  walls.  The  architectural  style 
gradually  changed  from  the  already  debased  clas- 
sical styles  of  the  age  of  Constantine  down  to  the 
rude  Romanesque  of  the  eighth  century. 

One  of  the  pleasant  letters  of  Sidonius  *  describes 
a  basilica  which  Patiens,  Bishop  of  Lyons,  built  in 
that  city  in  honour  of  the  popular  Gallic  Saint 
Justus.  Sidonius  and  two  other  poets,  the  most 
eminent  of  their  age  and  nation,  were  invited  by 
the  bishop  to  supply  three  inscriptions,!  which  were 
to  be  engi-aved  on  tablets  and  placed  at  the  west 
end  of  the  church.  Sidonius  gives  us  a  copy  of  his 
composition,  which  is  in  verse;  he  pleasantly  ex- 
cuses himself  from  sending  those  of  his  friends,  be- 
cause he  is  unwilling  to  submit  his  own  to  the 
imfavourable  comparison,  as  it  is  bad  taste  to  give 
a  bride  a  bridesmaid  handsomer  than  herself  We 
gather  from  the  verses  that  the  new  church  faced 
"  the  equinoctial  east."  "  It  is  light  within ;  the  sun 
is  attracted  to  the  gilded  ceiling,  and  wanders  with 
its  yellow  glow  over  the  yellow  metal.  Marbles  of 
various  splendour  eniich  the  ceiling  (cameram),  the 

*  Lib.  ii.  10. 

+  Sidonius  also  wrote  an  iuscriptiou  for  tlie  new  basilica  at  Tours 
built  by  Bishop  Perpetuus  (Lib.  ir.  Ep.  18). 


ECCLESIASTICAL  ANTIQUITIES.  113 

pavement,  and  the  Avindows;  and  through  the  leek- 
green  glass  of  the  windows,  beneath  varicoloured 
figures,  an  encrustation,  grassy  and  spring-like, 
bends  around  the  sapphire  gems. 

'  Ac  sub  versicoloribus  figuris 
Vemans  herbida  crusta  sapphiratos 
Flectit  per  prasiuum  vitrum  lapillos.' 

It  has  a  triple  portico  (probably  along  three  sides 
of  the  atrium),  magnificent  with  Aquitanian  mar- 
bles, and  a  similar  portico  closes  the  further  side  of 
the  atrium.  A  grove  of  stone  scatters  its  columns 
far  and  wide  over  the  interior,"  It  is  easy  to  gather 
that  the  church  was  of  the  usual  basilican  type,  hand- 
somely adorned  with  marbles,  mosaic,  and  gilding.* 
In  another  letter,  Sidonius  gives  incidentally  a 
glimpse  of  a  Church  function  in  this  very  church : 
"  We  had  assembled  at  the  sepulchre  of  St.  Justus, 
where  they  made  the  yearly  procession  before  dawn. 
There  was  a  great  multitude  of  people,  more  than 
the  capacious  basilica  and  the  ciypt  could  hold, 
though  surrounded  with  spacious  porticoes.  When 
the  office  of  vigils  was  ended  (chanted  by  monks 
and  clergy  in  alternate  choruses),  we  parted  from 
one  another,  but  did  not  go  far,  that  we  might  be 
in  readiness  for  Tierce,  when  the  priests  should 
celebrate  the  Divine  office.  The  crowd  in  the 
church,  the  many  lights,  and  the  closeness  of  the 
night — for  it  was  still  summer,  though  tempered  by 
the  freshness  of  the  coming  autumn — oppressed  us, 
and  when  the  various  ranks  of  citizens  dispersed, 
*  See  also  Lib.  vi.  12. 


114  CHARLElVIAGNfi. 


we,  who  belonged  to  the  first  families  of  Lyons,  de- 
cided to  make  our  rendezvous  at  the  tomb  of  the 
Consul  Syagrius,  which  was  scarce  a  bowshot  from 
the  church.  Here  some  reclined  under  the  shade  of 
a  treUis,  covered  with  the  leaves  and  clusters  of  a 
vine ;  others,  of  whom  I  was  one,  sat  on  the  green 
sward,  which  was  fragrant  with  flowers.  Whoever 
could  teU  a  good  story  was  sure  of  eager  listenei's. 
There  was  no  sustained  conversation,  for  it  was  con- 
tinually interrupted  by  lively  sallies.  At  length, 
tired  of  doing  nothing,  the  old  people  played  at 
tables,  the  young  ones  at  ball  (tennis)."  Sidonius 
wrote  an  epigram.  It  was  hardly  read  when  word 
came  that  it  was  time  for  the  bishop  to  leave  his 
chamber,  and  all  rose  and  returned  to  the  church. 

Gregory  of  Tours  has  frequent  notices  of  the  new 
churches  built  during  the  period  embraced  by  his 
ecclesiastical  history.  He  tells  us  the  actual  dimen- 
sions of  the  new  basilica  *  of  St.  Martin,  built  by 
Perpetuus,  the  sixth  successor  of  St.  Martin  in  the 
see  of  Tours.  It  was  160  feet  long  by  60  wide ;  its 
height  to  the  ceiling  was  45  feet ;  it  had  32  windows 
in  the  presbytery,  and  20  in  the  nave,  and  41 
columns;  in  the  whole  edifice  52  windows,  120 
columns,  and  8  gates.  Since  the  ceiling  (camera)  of 
the  ancient  church  was  an  elegant  work,  the  bishop 
erected  another  church  in  honour  of  SS.  Peter  and 

*  Mabillon  says  that  it  has  been  gatisfactorily  shown  that  in  the 
writings  of  authors  who  wrote  in  Gaul  in  the  sixth  and  seventh 
centuries,  "  basilica  "  is  to  be  understood  as  meaning  the  church  of 
a  convent ;  cathedral  and  parish  churches  being  called  "  ecclesisB." 
("  Diet,  of  Christian  Antiq.,"  art.  "Basilica.") 


ECCLESIASTICAL  ANTIQUITIES.  115 

Paul,  and  placed  this  ceiling  upon  it.*  The  first 
basilica  of  St.  Martin  had  been  built  by  Bishop 
Brice,  the  fourth  bishop.  This  second  church  of 
Perpetuus  was  burnt  down,  and  rebuilt  by  Gregory, 
larger  and  more  beautiful,  and  dedicated  in  the 
seventeenth  year  of  his  episcopate.! 

The  church  which  Namatius,  the  eighth  bishop 
of  Clermont,  built,  "  which  is  the  principal  church 
there,"  was  150  feet  long  by  60  wide,  and  50  feet 
high  to  the  ceiling  of  the  nave ;  in  front  it  had  a 
round  apse,  on  each  side  stretched  aisles  of  elegant 
structure,  and  the  whole  edifice  was  disposed  in  the 
form  of  a  cross.  It  had  42  windows,  70  columns, 
and  8  gates.  Gregory  gives  an  interesting  note  of 
the  religious  impression  produced  upon  the  mind  by 
the  building:  "A  pious  fear  of  God  makes  itself 
felt  in  this  place,  which  is  penetrated  by  a  bright 
clearness,  and  very  often  the  religious  perceive  there 
perfumes  which  seem  as  if  they  were  given  out  by 
sweet  spices.  The  waUs  of  the  altar  are  adorned 
with  different  kinds  of  marbles,  carved  with  much 
elegance." 

The  wife  of  the  above  Bishop  Namatius  built  the 
basilica  of  St.  Stephen  without  the  walls  of  the 
to%vn,  and  had  it  painted  ^vith  paintings,  which  she 
indicated  to  the  artists  out  of  a  book  which  she 
possessed — some  religious  book,  doubtless,  illumi- 
nated with  miniature  paintings.  One  day,  when  the 
bishop's  wife  was  sitting  in  the  church  reading,  a 
poor  person,  who  came  into  the  church  to  pray,  took 
*  ii.  14.  t  s.  31. 


116  CHARLEMAGNE. 


her  for  a  poor  old  woman,  and  put  a  piece  of  bread  on 
her  knees.  She  accepted  it  with  thanks,  and  kept 
it,  "  using  it  at  meals  for  the  hlessing."  Bishops 
and  priests  used  to  send  presents  of  blessed  loaves 
(Eulogice),  in  token  of  respect  or  affection ;  the  re- 
ceiver used  to  eat  a  little  of  the  loaf  every  day,  as  if 
it  conveyed  a  quasi-sacramental  blessing :  e.g.  we 
are  told  in  the  life  of  Eligius,  that  when  he  left  the 
monastery  of  Luxeuil,  after  a  visit,  "he  earnestly 
begged  a  little  loaf  of  bread,  of  which  he  ate  a  little 
every  day,  fasting,  as  if  it  had  been  the  holy  com- 
munion." So  the  wife  of  Namatius  accepted  the  loaf 
given  her  in  charity  £is  if  it  had  been  a  Eulogia,  and, 
according  to  custom,  eat  a  little  of  it  every  day  till 
none  of  it  was  left.* 

Agricola,  Bishop  of  Chalons,  a  man  of  senatorial 
race,  wise  and  cultured,  built  in  his  city  many 
edifices,  also  a  church  with  columns,  marbles,  and 
mosaic  pictures.f 

Of  Balmatius,  Bishop  of  Rhodez,  he  tells  us  that  he 
constructed  a  church,  but  as  he  often  had  it  pulled 
down  in  order  to  make  it  more  perfect,  he  died, 
leaving  it  unfinished. 

There  are  still  some  actual  remains  of  the  churches 
of  this  period ;  at  Perigueux,  and  the  baptistry  at 
Poitiers.  Along  the  Loire  are  several  churches, 
which  date  from  the  sixth  to  the  eighth  centuries. 
In  the  valley  of  the  Rhone  are  many  remains  in  a 
good  Roman  style,  which  are,  no  doubt,  of  this  period, 
e.g.  the  porch  of  Avignon  Cathedral.  The  church  of 
•  ii.  16.  t  V.  46. 


ECCLESIASTICAL  ANTIQUITIES.  117 

the  Convent  of  Romain-motier  in  the  Jura,  which 
still  remains,  was  dedicated  by  Pope  Stephen  II. 
A.D.  753. 

The  Ahecedaive  of  M.  de  Caumont  gives  us  en- 
gravings of  a  few  fragments  of  the  church  work  of 
this  period:  carved  capitals,  specimens  of  mouldings 
and  surface  decorations,  fragments  of  pavements, 
mosaics,  and  sculptui^ed  sarcophagi ;  which  help  us 
to  realize  the  details  of  the  churches  which  Sidonius 
and  Gregory  describe,  and  serve  to  illustrate  the 
gradual  change  in  architecture  from  the  tolerably 
pure  classic  character  of  the  fifth  and  sixth  centuries, 
through  the  knot-work  and  rude  figure  design  of 
the  seventh  and  eighth. 

Bishops. — Sidonius  gives  us  much  information  on 
the  mode  of  electing  bishops  in  his  time.  In  the 
case  of  a  vacancy  in  the  see  of  Chalons,  he  tells  us  * 
there  were  three  candidates ;  one  a  man  of  no  merit 
but  of  good  family,  the  second  a  man  who  was 
gaining  partisans  by  help  of  his  kitchen ;  f  the  third 
had  secretly  pledged  himself  to  reward  his  partisans 
out  of  the  possessions  of  the  see.  The  bishops  of 
the  province  assembled ;  and  in  the  end  Patiens 
and  Epiphanius  consecrated  John  the  Archdeacon, 
who  was  recommended  by  his  honesty,  charity, 
and   sweetness   of  disposition.      How  the  bishops 

*  Bk.  vi.  7. 

t  Gregory  of  Tours  also  (v.  47)  tells  us  that  on  the  death  of 
Balmatius,  Archbishop  of  Rhodez,  many,  as  usual,  sought  his  see. 
The  priest  Transobaldus  had  great  expectation  of  it,  and  made  a 
feast  to  the  clergy  of  the  city. 


118  CHARLEMAGNE. 

were  able  to  get  rid  of  the  other  candidates  is 
probably  indicated  by  what  took  place  in  the  next 
instance. 

In  the  seventh  book  we  have  several  letters 
(5,  6,  8, 9)  relating  to  the  filling  up  of  the  vacant  see 
of  Bourges.  In  the  first  of  these  letters  to  the  Lord 
Pope  Agroecius*  (he  was  Bishop  of  Sens),  he  tells  him 
that  he  has  been  summoned  to  Bourges  because  of 
the  death  of  their  bishop,  and  the  confusion  which 
exists  over  the  choice  of  a  successor  among  a  multi- 
tude of  unworthy  candidates.  He  informs  him  that 
the  wars  have  not  left  in  the  province  a  sufficient 
number  of  bishops  to  consecrate ;  and  therefore  he 
invites  Agroecius,  though  of  another  province,  to 
come  to  their  assistance ;  and  he  promises  that  he 
will  leave  the  selection  of  the  new  bishop  to  him, 

*  The  title  "  Pope,"  which  is  nothing  more  than  "  Father,"  was 
given  to  all  bishops  in  those  days.  Sidonius  constantly  addresses 
his  contemporary  bishops  as  "  Lord  Pope,"-  etc.  A  little  later 
Radegunda,  in  her  letter  to  the  bishops,  addresses  them  as  her 
"  holy  lords,  and  most  worthy  possessors  of  the  apostolic  see,  her 
fathers  in  Christ "  (^dominie  Sanctis  et  apostolica  sede  digmssimis, 
in  Oirido  patribus),  and  signs  herself  "Radegunda,  a  sinner" 
(Radegundis  peccatrix).  St.  Didier,  Bishop  of  Cahors,  writing  to 
St.  Ouen,  addresses  him,  "  Holy  and  excellent  Apostolic  Father  and 
Pope  "  (^Sancto  ac  prasferendo  apostolico  patre  Dadoni  papse  Beside- 
rius  servus  servorum  Dei — Lib.  1.  Ep.  10),  and  signs  himself  "  Didier, 
servant  of  the  servants  of  God."  So  St.  Eligius,  writing  to  the 
same  St.  Didier,  addresses  him  as  his  "  ever  Lord  and  apostolic 
father.  Pope  Desiderius,"  and  signs  himself  "  Eligius,  8er\ant  of 
the  servants  of  God  "  ("  Letters  of  St.  Desiderius,"  Lib.  ii.  Ep.  10). 

The  Bee  of  Rome  has  retained  some  of  these  ancient  forms  of 
expression,  which  have  been  gradually  abandoned  by  the  other 
bishops  of  the  West. 


ECCLESIASTICAL  ANTIQUITIES.  119 

and  will  support  his  choice.  Letter  8  is  to  the 
Lord  Pope  Euphronius  (Bishop  of  Autun),  to  ask  his 
advice  on  the  same  business.  He  tells  him  that 
the  people  of  Bourges  demand  for  their  bishop  a 
layman  of  distinction  (vir  spectahilis)  named  Sim- 
plicius.  In  Letter  9,  to  the  Lord  Pope  Perpetuus 
(Bishop  of  Tours),  he  tells  him,  with  a  good  deal  of 
humour,  that  there  was  so  great  a  crowd  of  com- 
petitors that  two  benches  could  not  hold  the  candi- 
dates for  this  one  see.  Every  one  was  satisfied 
with  himself,  and  every  one  was  dissatisfied  with  all 
the  rest  {Omnes  placebant  sibi,  (mines  omnibus  dis- 
plicebant).  The  clergy  and  people  got  out  of  their 
embarrassment  by  putting  the  nomination  absolutely 
into  the  hands  of  Sidonius.  Perpetuus  has  asked 
him  for  a  copy  of  the  speech  he  made  to  the  people 
of  Bourges  on  the  occasion,  and  he  here  sends  it. 
It  is  very  long  and  oratorical,  according  to  ths  pre- 
vailing taste,  but  it  is  a  very  interesting  illustration 
of  the  manners  of  the  times.  We  can  only  extract 
fragments  of  two  or  three  sentences  which  illustrate 
the  subject  on  which  we  are  engaged. 

"  If  I  should  nominate  to  you,"  he  says,  "  one 
from  among  the  monks,  though  he  were  equal  to  Paul, 
Antony,  Hilarius,  or  Macarius,  I  should  hear  the 
murmur  of  a  crowd  of  ignoble  dwarfs  buzzing  about 
my  ears,  saying,  '  We  want  a  man  to  fulfil  the  duti,es 
of  a  bishop,  not  of  an  abbot.  This  man  is  much 
more  fit  to  intercede  for  souls  before  the  Celestial 
Judge,  than  for  bodies  before  the  judges  of  this  world.' 
...  If  I  nominate  a  clerk,  those  who  are  of  older 


120  CHARLEMAGNE. 


standing  will  be  jealous  of  him,  and  those  of  younger 
standing  will  decry  him;  for  there  are  some  who 
think  the  number  of  years  a  man  has  been  in  the 
priesthood  is  the  sole  measure  of  his  merit,  as  if  to 
have  lived  long  rather  than  to  have  lived  well  fitted 
a  man  for  the  Episcopate.  ...  If  I  indicate  a  man 
who  has  had  experience  in  military  command,  I 
shall  hear  these  words :  '  Because  Sidonius  was 
transfeiTed  from  secular  ofiice  to  the  episcopate,  he  is 
unwilling  to  have  for  his  metropolitan  a  man  taken 
out  of  the  body  of  the  clergy :  proud  of  his  own  birth, 
elevated  to  the  highest  rank  by  his  dignities,  he  de- 
spises the  poor  of  Christ.' "...  He  concludes  by 
nominating  Simplicius,  "  until  to-day  one  of  your 
order  (a  layman),  who  from  to-day  will  belong  to  our 
order,  if,  by  you,  God  shall  so  determine."  He  gives 
a  long  eulogy  of  Simplicius  and  a  statement  of  his 
claims :  "  Bishops  and  pretors  have  been  among  his 
ancestors;  he  himself  is  among  the  most  notable 
of  your  fellow-citizens.  Some  one  will  say  that 
Eucherus  and  Pannychius  are  more  distinguished; 
but  they  have  contracted  second  marriages."  "Sim- 
plicius is  a  man  of  competent  learning,  great  charity, 
etc."  "  More  than  once,  on  behalf  of  your  city,  he  has 
stood  before  kings  in  furs  and  princes  in  purple."  * 
He  praises  his  wife,  "  descended  from  the  family  of 
the  Palladii,  who  have  occupied  the  chair  both  of 
letters  and  of  the  altars,  with  the  approbation 
of  their  order."  But  "  since,"  he  says, "  the  character 
of  a  matron  should  be  mentioned  only  with  delicacy 
*  That  is,  barbarian  kings  and  Roman  emperors. 


ECCLESIASTICAL  ANTIQUITIES.  121 

and  brevity"  (Sane  quia  persona  Tnatronas  verecun- 
daTii  et  succindam  sui  exegit  Tnentionem),  he  con- 
tents himself  with  stating  that  the  lady  is  worthy 
of  the  honours  of  the  two  families ;  of  that  in  which 
she  was  bom  and  brought  up,  and  of  that  into 
which  she  has  entered  by  an  honourable  marriage. 
Both  have  brought  up  their  children  wisely  and 
well."  He  concludes,  "  Since  you  have  sworn  to 
recognize  and  accept  the  decision  of  my  Infirmity 
on  the  subject  of  this  election — in  the  Name  of 
the  Father,  and  of  the  Son,  and  of  the  Holy  Ghost, 
SiMPLicius  is  he  whom  I  declare  worthy  to  be  made 
metropolitan  of  our  province  and  bishop  of  your 
city." 

Gregory  of  Tours  gives  us  numerous  notices  of 
the  mode  of  appointing  bishops  in  his  day.  The 
regular  mode  of  election  was  by  the  clergy  and 
laity  of  the  city ;  and  the  canons  required  that 
no  one  should  come  to  the  episcopate  without 
having  regularly  passed  through  the  degrees  of  the 
ecclesiastical  hierarchy.*  But  the  Frank  kings 
assumed  to  themselves  a  right  of  nomination,  and 
though  an  attempt  was  sometimes  made  to  hurry 
through  an  election  and  consecration  before  the 
king  could  intervene,!  the  royal  nomination  seems 
never  to  have  been  openly  resisted  and  refused.! 

*  Lib.  vi.  15.     Cato,  who  was  a  candidate  for  the  see  of  Toura 
when  Euphronius  was  elected,  says  of  himself  that  he  had  been 
lector  ten  years,  sub-deacon  five  years,  deaoon  fifteen  years,  priest 
twenty  years, 
'   t  vL  7.  X  Lib.  iii.  15 ;  vi.  9,  39. 


122  CHARLEMAGNE. 


Frequently  the  king  nominated  a  layman  (we  have 
Been  that  it  had  not  been  unusual  in  former  times 
to  elect  laymen),  and  they  were  passed  though  the 
different  degrees  very  hastily.  Thus  Maracarius, 
Count  of  Angouleme,was  made  clerk  and  consecrated 
bishop.*  The  King  Clothaire  caused  Badegesilus, 
mayor  of  the  royal  palace,  to  be  elected  Bishop  of 
Avignon,  who,  having  been  tonsured,  passed  by  the 
different  degrees  of  the  clericature,  and  forty  days 
after  succeeded  to  the  see.f  These  last  examples  are 
enough  to  indicate  that  the  kings  often  promoted 
their  civil  servants  and  courtiers  to  the  office  of 
bishop.  The  kings  not  only  rewarded  service  out  of 
the  benefices  of  the  Church,  but  even  sold  their 
nominations.  When  a  see  was  vacant,  candidates 
for  it  posted  off  in  haste  to  the  king  and  sought  his 
nomination  by  presents.  J 

Gregory  says  of  King  Chilperic  that  few  priests 
obtained  the  episcopate  in  his  reign.  On  the  other 
hand,  Guntram,  when  a  number  of  candidates  for 
the  see  of  Bourges  offered  him  presents,  said  it  was 
not  his  custom  to  sell  the  priesthood.§  He  had  also 
sworn  not  to  choose  laymen  for  bishops,  but  some- 
times did  so ;  "  for  alas,"  says  Gregory, "  what  cannot 
the  accursed  thirst  of  gold  effect  in  the  hearts  of 
mortals."  || 

Some  bishops  were  married  men.ir  Sometimes  a 
coadjutor  with  right  of  succession  was  appointed  to 

*  V,  37.  t  vi.  9.  X  vi.  39 ;  x.  26,  etc.  §  yi.  39. 

I,  Lib.  viii.  22.  t  It.  3G  ;  viii.  39. 


ECCLESIASTICAL   ANTIQUITIES.  123 

an  infirm  bishop.  Three  *  bishops  who  had  wrong- 
fully consecrated  a  bishop  to  the  see  of  Dax  were 
required  to  maintain  him.f 

Rogations. — Sidonius  |  tells  how,  about  the  year 
A.D.  468,  the  city  of  Vienne  was  afflicted  with  a 
strange  successioij  of  calamities — fires,  earthquakes, 
frightful  noises ;  and  Mamertius  the  bishop  instituted 
processions  of  clergy  and  people,  walking  through 
the  streets,  singing  psalms  and  appropriate  prayers, 
for  the  three  days  preceding  Ascension  Day,  in 
order  to  pray  for  deliverance  from  these  calamities, 
and  those  still  greater  which  these  seemed  to 
portend.  Other  cities  adopted  the  custom ;  it 
gradually  became  general.  The  Council  of  Orleans 
in  the  last  year  of  Clovis  ordered  its  universal 
adoption.  It  spread  to  the  English  Church,  so 
intimately  related  with  that  of  Gaul.  The  beating 
of  the  bounds  of  oXir  parishes  on  Ascension  Day  is 
the  meagre  remnant  of  what  must  have  been,  and 
might  still  be,  a  very  grand  and  striking  act  of 
popular  recognition  of  Almighty  God. 

Recluses  and  Solitakies. — Not  only  the  more 
sober  life  of  the  religious  community,  which  Martin 
and  Cassian  and  Benedict  had  introduced  into 
Gaul,  but  the  wild  austerities  and  exceptional 
extravagancies   of    the   Egyptian    solitaries   found 

*  v.  5.  See  also  Sidonius  (Lib.  iv.  Letter  II),  for  another  example 
in  his  day. 

t  viii.  20.  X  Lib.  vii.  Ep.  1. 


124  CHARLEMAGNE. 


imitators  in  a  physical  and  moral  climate  which 
would  seem  little  adapted  to  them. 

Gregory  tells  us  *  of  a  man  named  Vulfilaic,  in  the 
neighbourhood  of  Treves,  who  had  imitated  Simeon 
and  the  other  stylites  of  the  East,  and  lived  on  his 
pillar  for  several  yeare ;  and  of  a  priest  who  always 
retained  a  standing  position  until  his  feet  had 
become  diseased. 

The  life  of  reclusion,  a  curious  phase  of  the 
"  religious  "  life,  seems  to  have  flourished  in  Gaul  in 
these  times.  It  is  fully  illustrated  in  the  pages  of 
Gregory's  history : — 

"  In  the  city  of  Nice  lived  a  recluse  named 
Hospitius,  a  man  of  great  abstinence,  who  wore  on 
his  naked  body  chains  of  iron,  and  over  them  a  robe 
of  hair-cloth,  and  eat  nothing  but  bread  and  dates." 
"  God  deigned  to  work  great  miracles  by  him  ;  "  of 
which  some  examples  are  given — healing  the  sick, 
the  deaf  and  dumb,  the  blind,  and  the  possessed. 
He  had  also  a  gift  of  prophecy ;  e.g.  he  foretold 
the  invasion  of  Gaul  by  the  Lombards.  He  lived 
in  a  tower,  the  entrance  to  which  was  walled  up, 
and  by  his  window  he  held  his  only  communication 
with  the  world.  When  the  Lombards  at  length 
invaded  the  country  they  surrounded  the  recluse's 
tower,  and  finding  no  door,  some  of  them  climbed 
upon  the  roof  and  broke  it  up,  and  so  obtained 
entrance;  and  finding  him  in  chains,  and  clothed 
with  hair-cloth,  they  supposed  he  must  be  some 
great  criminal.  In  the  true  recluse  spirit  he  con- 
*  Lib.  yiii.  15. 


ECCLESIASTICAI.  ANTIQUITIES.  125 

fessed  that  he  was  so  ;  but  they  did  him  no  injury, 
and  left  him  in  his  cell.  "  On  the  approach  of 
death  he  sent  to  the  prior  of.  the  monastery  and 
bade  him  'bring  tools  to  open  the  wall,  and 
send  messengers  to  the  bishop  of  the  city  to  come 
and  bury  me,  for  in  three  days  I  shall  leave  this 
world  and  go  to  the  rest  which  God  has  promised 
me.' "  *  The  tomb  of  this  recluse  was  still  to  be 
seen  in  the  cathedral  of  Nice  in  the  seventeenth 
century.  The  tower  which  he  inhabited  was 
situated  on  a  little  peninsula  about  a  league  from 
Nice,  and  bore  the  name  of  San  Sospir.f 

One  of  the  nuns  of  St.  Radegunda,  in  the  monastery 
at  Poitiers,  had  a  vision  of  the  Celestial  Bridegroom, 
and  "  a  few  days  afterwards  begged  the  abbess  to 
cause  a  little  cell  to  be  made  ready  for  her,  to  live 
there  in  reclusion.  The  cell  was  soon  ready.  The 
abbess  said  to  her,  '  Behold  the  cell ;  now  what  do 
you  wish  ? '  The  religious  demanded  that  it  might 
be  permitted  to  her  to  be  enclosed  there.  This 
favour  was  granted  her.  She  was  conducted  there 
by  the  assembled  virgins,  with  chants,  by  the  light 
of  torches,  Radegunda  holding  her  by  the  hand. 
Then,  having  said  adieu  to  all  her  companions,  and 
embraced  them  one  by  one,  she  was  enclosed,  the 
opening  of  the  cell  was  sealed,  and  there  she  gives 
herself  up  to  this  day  to  prayer  and  reading."  | 

A  little  later ,  we  read  of  another  recluse  in  the 
same  monastery.  One  of  the  nuns,  "  having  slid 
from  the  height  of  the  walls,  had  taken  sanctuary 

*  vi.  6.  t  Note  in  he.  by  Guizot.  %  vi.  29. 


126  CHARLEMAGNE. 


in  the  neighbouring  basilica  of  St.  Hilary,  and 
brought  many  accusations  against  the  abbess,  which 
were  found  to  be  false.  But  at  last,  having  climbed 
back  into  the  monastery  with  cords  by  the  same 
place  by  which  she  had  escaped,  she  demanded  to 
be  enclosed  in  a  secret  cell,  saying,  'For  having 
simied  gi-eatly  against  God  and  against  my  Lady 
Radegunda'  (who  at  that  time  was  living)  'I  wish  to 
separate  myself  altogether  from  the  society  of  this 
convent,  and  to  do  penance  for  the  forgetfuhiess  of 
my  duties.  I  know  that  the  Lord  is  full  of  mercy, 
and  forgives  those  who  confess  their  sins.'  She 
entered  into  her  cell.  But  afterwards  the  spirit  of 
disorder  raised  by  Chrodielda  in  this  monastciy 
extended  to  the  poor  recluse,  and  she  broke  the 
door  of  her  cell  during  the  night  and  went  to  join 
Chrodielda." 

At  Bordeaux  a  child  of  twelve  years  old,  named 
Anatolius,  refused  to  be  dissuaded  from  becoming  a 
recluse,  and  was  walled  up  in  a  corner  of  an  ancient 
vaulted  building.  After  having  lived  this  life  for 
eight  years,  he  seems  to  have  been  able  to  endure 
it  no  longer.  He  complained  of  internal  pains,  and 
at  length  he  loosened  the  squared  stones  which 
kept  him  enclosed,  overturned  the  wall,  bruising  his 
hands,  and  came  out.* 

Another  recluse,  giving  way  to  love  of  wine,  got 

into  a  habit  of  drinking,  and  went  mad.*     Gregory 

speaks  of  other  recluses — Senoch  at  Tours,  Caluppa 

in  Auvergne,  Patrocles   at  Bourges,  Eparcus,  who 

•  viii.  34. 


ECCLESIASTICAL  ANTIQUITIES.  127 

lived  the  life  of  seclusion  for  forty-four  years  at 
Ancrouleme,  and  others.*  We  need  do  no  more  than 
name  them;  we  have  already  said  enough  to  illustrate 
the  common  existence  of  the  recluse  life  in  this 
period,  the  motives  which  influenced  the  recluses, 
and  the  various  results  of  the  unnatural  experi- 
ment. 

Religious  Widowhood — that  is,  the  observance 
by  widows  of  a  "religious"  life,  based  upon  the 
"rule"  laid  down  by  St.  Paul  (1  Tim.  v.),  was 
very  usual.  We  have  seen  that  Clotilda,  the  widow 
of  Clovis,  lived  in  religious  retirement  at  Tours. 
Ingoberga,  the  widow  of  King  Childebert,  also  is 
described  as  a  woman  of  great  wisdom,  given  to  a 
religious  life,  diligent  in  watchings,  prayers,  and 
alms.f  Gregoiy's  account  of  another  religious 
widow  may  be  given  at  length,  as  it  illustrates  other 
customs  of  the  time.  "  The  mother  of  Count  Eula- 
lius  had  an  oratory  in  her  house,  and  used  often, 
when  the  servants  were  asleep,  to  spend  the  night- 
watches  in  prayers  and  tears;  on  such  occasions 
she  wore  a  hair-cloth.  One  day  she  was  found 
strangled,  it  was  believed  by  her  dissolute  son. 
At  the  festival  of  St.  Julian,  at  the  time  of  divine 
service,  Eulalius  prostrated  himself  before  the 
bishop,  and  complained  that  he  was  refused  com- 
munion, innocent  and  unheard.  The  bishop  bade 
him  then  take  part  in  the  service.     When  it  came 

*  E.g,  in  the  "  Libri  de  Gloria  Confessorum,"  xcviii.,  ci.,  ciii.,  etc. 
t  Gregory  of  Tours,  ix.  26. 


128  CHAELESIAGNE. 


to  the  administration,  the  bishop  addressed  hira. 
'  Popular  report  accuses  you  of  matricide.  I  know 
not  whether  you  are  guilty;  I  remit  the  judgment 
to  God  and  St.  Julian.  If  you  are  innocent  as  you 
say,  approach,  take  a  portion  of  the  Eucharist,  and 
put  it  into  your  mouth.'  "  *  The  bishop  did  not  give 
it  him,  but  challenged  him  to  take  it. 

Sanctuary. — Another  custom,  very  frequently 
alluded  to  in  Gregory's  narrative,  is  the  custom  of 
sanctuary.  Again  and  again  we  are  told  of  men 
who  have  incurred  the  displeasure  of  the  king.f  or 
have  committed  some  crime,  or  of  slaves  who  fear 
the  anger  of  their  master,^  taking  temporary  refuge 
in  the  nearest  church,  or  taking  up  their  abode  in 
the  precincts  of  some  more  famous  shrinc.§  And 
we  find  that  the  sanctuary  was  almost  univereally 
respected.  Even  a  man  who  attempted  to  as.sas- 
sinate  King  Guntram,  and  who  was  at  once  di'agged 
out  of  the  church  to  which  he  had  fled  by  the  over- 
zealous  servants  of  the  king,  was  only  beaten,  and 
not  slain,  "because  they  thought  it  was  not  per- 
mitted to  put  to  death  a  man  whom  they  had 
dragged  out  of  the  church ; "  ||  and  on  another 
occasion  Theodebert  says,1[  "We  are  Christians, 
and  it  is  not  permitted  to  punish  criminals  whom 
they  have  dragged  out  of  the  church." 

•  We  read  afterwards  of  the  dissolute  count  that  he  carried  off  a 
nun  from  the  monastery  of  Lyons  and  married  her. 
t  X.  10;  V.  1 ;  Brunehaut,  vi.  15;  Fredegonda,  ix.  9. 
X  7.3.  §  iv.  15.  II  ix.  3.  1  ix.  38. 


ECCLESIASTICAL   AJ^TIQUITIES.  129 

The  immunity  of  the  sanctuary  was  sometimes 
evaded.  Two  slaves  of  Duke  Rauchlin  the  Cruel 
had  married  without  their  lord's  leave,  and  had  fled 
for  sanctuary  to  the  neighbouring  church.  The 
priest  interceded  with  the  duke  not  to  kill,  or  beat, 
or  separate  them,  and  he  promised  that  he  would 
not.  When  they  returned,  he  had  a  gi'ave  dug,  and 
had  them  placed  in  it  together,  and  filled  it  in,  and 
so  fulfilled  his  promise. 

The  great  basilicas  of  St.  Martin  at  Tours  and 
St.  Hilary  at  Poitiers  seem  to  have  been  the  two 
most  famous  sanctuaries  of  Gaul. 

On  the  assassination  of  King  Sigebert,  Chilperic 
seized  the  Touraine,  and  as  a  consequence  of  this 
revolutions  Duke  Guntram,  surnamed  Bose — the 
Bad — took  sanctuary  in  St.  Martin's.  Chilperic  sent 
Duke  Rauchlin  the  Cruel,  with  troops,  to  demand 
the  refugee,  with  the  threat  of  burning  the  suburbs 
of  the  town  if  he  were  not  surrendered.  Bishop 
Gregory,  who  was  a  young  man,  and  had  only  lately 
succeeded  to  the  see,  was  greatly  troubled,  but  he 
refused  to  allow  the  violation  of  the  right  of 
sanctuary.  Rauchlin  burnt  one  villa,  by  way  of 
enforcing  his  threats,  and  was  seized  with  sickness. 
A  few  days  after,  on  the  feast  of  the  Epiphany,  he 
entered  the  city  on  horseback,  and  finding  the  clergy 
going  in  procession  from  the  cathedral  to  the 
basilica  of  St.  Martin,  preceded  by  banners  and 
the  cross,  he  put  himself  at  the  head  of  the  pro- 
cession, immediately  after  the  cross.  On  entering 
the  church  his  illness  increased :  and  he  died  at  the 


130       .  CHARLEMAGNE. 


end  of  the  month.  Chilperic  took  the  straDge  step 
of  writing  a  letter  to  St.  Martin,  asking  leave  to 
remove  the  criminal  from  his  protection.  The 
letter  was  placed  upon  the  saint's  tomb,  with  a 
blank  paper  for  the  saint's  reply.  Since  the  saint 
did  not  give  any  reply  to  the  missive,  the  king  con- 
tented himself  with  taking  an  oath  from  Guntram 
Bose  that  he  would  not  quit  the  sanctuary  without 
his  knowledge. 

When,  shortly  after,  Merovig,  the  son  of  Chil- 
peric, was  by  his  father's  order  tonsured,  ordained 
priest,  and  sent  into  exile  into  a  monastery  in  the 
country  of  Le  Mans,  the  Duke  Guntram  Bose,  who 
Avas  still  living  in  sanctuary  at  St.  Martin's,  sent  a 
deacon,  advising  him  to  escape  from  his  conductors 
and  take  sanctuary  also.  The  historian  follows  the 
fortunes  of  the  unhappy  young  prince,  and  thus 
introduces  us  into  the  inner  life  of  the  sanctuary  at 
Tours.  The  weak  young  prince  and  the  wicked 
duke  lived  there,  with  their  attendants,  within  the 
sacred  precincts,  a  life  of  riot  and  debauchery. 
Occasionally  they  sallied  out  into  the  town, 
attacked  the  house  of  some  citizen,  and  retreated 
with  their  plunder  into  sanctuaiy.  Once  Guntram 
Bose  induced  the  prince  even  to  mount  and  saUy 
forth  from  the  town  for  a  day's  hunting,  thinking 
to  betray  him  to  an  ambush  laid  for  his  life  by  the 
Queen  Fredegonda.  King  Chilperic  tried  to  induce 
the  bishop  to  expel  the  prince  from  the  sanctuary, 
but  in  vain.  He  sent  soldiers  to  ravage  the  territory 
of  Tours  in  revenge;  but  he  did  not  violate  the 


ECCLESIASTICAL   ANTIQUITIES,  131 

sanctuary.*  At  length  Merovig  left  of  his  own 
accord,  and  fled  to  Austrasia. 

Some  years  afterwards,  Eberulf,  the  chamberlain 
of  Chilperic,  accused  by  Fredegonda  of  the  king's 
death,  took  sanctuary  in  St.  Martin's,  and  dwelt  in 
the  sacristy.  He,  like  Merovig,  sought  to  relieve  the 
tedium  of  his  confinement  with  feasting  and  loose 
living.  One  evening,  when  the  priest  who  had 
charge  of  the  doors  had  retired,  after  having  closed 
them,  some  young  women  came  in  with  some  of  the 
servants  of  Eberulf,  strolling  about,  admiring  the 
pictures  on  the  walls,  and  the  ornaments  of  the  holy 
shrine.  This  was  a  scandal  to  the  religious,  and 
the  priest  was  ordered  to  bolt  the  doors.  But  Eberulf, 
having  heard  of  it,  after  supper,  elevated  with 
wine,  entered  the  church  at  the  beginning  of  night, 
when  they  chanted  the  Psalms  (vespers,  perhaps), 
and  abused  both  the  priest  and  Gregory  the  bishop 
for  what  had  been  done.  The  sequel  of  the  story 
tells  us  how  a  servant  of  Fredegonda's,  incited  to  it 
by  the  queen,  pretended  to  take  sanctuary,  wormed 
himself  into  the  confidence  of  Eberulf,  took  an 
opportunity  when  alone  with  him  to  stab  him 
mortall}^,  and  then  sought  refuge  in  the  cell  of  the 
abbot  himself  But  not  only  the'  servants  of  the 
murdered  noble,  but  the  pilgrims  who  happened  to 
be  there,  forced  open  the  abbot's  cell,  dragged  the 
sacrilegious  murderer  out,  and  killed  him. 

When  Count  Leudaste  had  fallen  under  the  dis- 

*  When  Duke  Astrapius  took  sanctuary  in  St.  Martin's,  King 
Chramnus  forbade  any  one  to  give  him  food  or  water  (iv.  15). 


132  CHARLEMAGNE. 


pleasure  of  Chilperic  and  Fredegonda,  he  took 
sanctuary  at  St.  Hilary  at  Poitiers.  He  organized 
some  of  the  lawless  men  he  found  there  into  a 
band,  with  whom  he  used  to  make  sorties  into  the 
town,  attack  and  plunder  the  house  of  some  rich 
citizen,  and  retire  again  into  sanctuary.  He  ate 
and  drank  and  diced,  and  introduced  women  of 
bad  repute  into  the  very  porticoes  of  the  church, 
till  at  length  the  authorities  of  the  church  refused 
to  tolerate  his  excesses,  and  drove  him  out  of 
sanctuary. 

The  wife  of  Duke  Rauchlin  was  told  of  his  death 
at  Soissons,  as  she  was  crossing  the  Place  of  the 
city  on  her  way  to  church,  covered  with  gold  and 
jewels,  preceded  and  followed  by  servants.  She  at 
once  took  sanctuary  in  the  basilica  of  St.  Medard.* 

The  bishops  exercised  a  kindred  power  of  miti- 
gating the  horrors  of  the  time,  by  personal  inter- 
ference on  behalf  of  a  criminal,  which  was  often 
effectual.-f"  Thus,  Guntram  Bose  on  one  occasion 
took  sanctuary  in  the  cathedral  of  Verdun,  and  the 
bishop  made  his  peace  with  King  Childebert. 

No  doubt  it  often  led  the  bishop  into  a  position 
of  great  difficulty,  when  some  powerful  criminal 
sought  his  influence  to  defeat  justice.  Guntram 
Bose,  on  another  occasion,  sought  refuge   in   the 

•  Gregory,  ix.  9. 

t  St.  Augustine  exercised  this  privilege  bo  freely  as  to  call  forth 
a  remonstrance  from  the  Vicar  of  Africa.  He  sometimes  refused 
to  interfere  where  he  tliought  that  punishment  was  deserved,  as 
in  the  case  of  the  people  of  Calamus  (Augustine,  "Fathers  for 
English  Readers,"  pp.  170,  117). 


ECCLESIASTICAL  ANTIQUITIES.  133 

house  of  the  Bishop  of  Mayence,  and  threatened  to 
kill  him  if  he  did  not  obtain  his  pardon  from  King 
Childebert.  The  bishop  had  the  double  claim  of 
his  sacred  office  and  of  being  godfather  to  the 
king's  son,  but  the  king  refused  to  let  the  criminal 
so  escape  his  vengeance.  He  ordered  the  bishop's 
house  to  be  set  on  fire,  saying,  "  If  the  bishop  likes 
to  stay  with  him,  let  them  both  bum."  His  clerks 
dragged  the  bishop  out  of  the  burning  house.  When 
Guntram  Bose  was  at  last  driven  out  by  the  flames, 
the  king's  men  who  waited  for  him  pierced  his 
body  at  once  with  so  many  lances  that  it  was  not 
able  to  fall  to  the  earth.* 

Miracles. — Gregory  fully  shared  the  belief  of 
his  age  that  the  power  of  working  miracles  was 
possessed  by  many  men  of  eminent  holiness  and 
faith — bishops,  monks,  recluses.  He  wrote  a  whole 
book  on  the  miracles  of  St.  Martin,  of  St.  Julian, 
and  of  others.  In  the  great  majority  of  cases  they 
are  miracles  of  healing,  but  others  are  recorded. 
The  power  was  even  so  common  as  not  always 
to  command  for  the  miracle-worker  the  reverence 
we  should  suppose  inseparable  from  such  a  gift; 
as  we  learn  from  a  story  of  a  young  monk  who 
was  set  to  watch  a  heap  of  corn,  while  his 
brethren  were  engaged  in  other  labours  of  the  field. 
The  clouds  gathered  and  threatened  rain,  and  the 

*  ix.  10.  For  examples  of  the  custom  of  sanctuary  in  the 
English  Church,  and  an  essay  on  the  subject,  see  the  Churchman's 
Family  Magazine,  for  Oct.  1,  1864. 


134  CHAELEilAGNE. 


young  monk,  unable  to  protect  his  charge  from  it, 
prostrated  himself  on  the  ground  and  prayed  ;  and, 
in  answer  to  his  prayers,  while  the  rain  fell  all 
around,  not  a  drop  fell  upon  the  corn.  The  monks, 
running  to  save  the  corn,  found  it  so.  The  abbot 
had  the  young  monk  beaten  and  confined  to  his 
cell  for  a  week  on  bread  and  water,  saying,  "It 
behoves  you,  my  son,  to  grow  humbly  in  the  fear 
and  service  of  God,  and  not  to  glorify  yourself  by 
prodigies  and  miracles."  * 

Relics. — Another  of  the  characteristics  of  the 
religion  of  the  time,  which  occupies  so  large  a 
space  in  the  pages  of  its  history  that  it  ought  not 
to  pass  without  notice  here,  is  the  general  rage  for 
the  possession  of  relics,  and  the  consequent  active 
traffic  in  them.  People  believed  that  by  possessing 
the  relic  of  a  saint  they  brought  themselves  under 
his  special  protection,  and  that  their  special  de- 
votion to  him  secured  his  good  offices.  He  wrought 
miracles  of  healing  at  his  shrine ;  he  furthered  the 
prayers  of  his  clients  with  his  own  intercession ; 
he  avenged  injuries  done  to  them.  Every  cathedral 
desired  to  increase  its  reputation  by  the  possession 
of  relics  as  many  and  as  sacred  as  it  could  obtain. 
Every  founder  of  a  monastery  thought  it  among 
the  most  important  provisions  for  the  well-being  of 
his  pious  work  that  he  should  obtain  the  relics  of 
some  saint,  under  whose  special  patronage  he  might 
place  his  foundation. 

*  Bk.  iv.  §  34. 


ECCLESIASTICAL  ANTIQUITIES.  135 

Thus  Radegunda,  "authorized  by  letters  from 
King  Sigebert,  sent  clerks  to  the  East,  to  search 
there  for  morsels  of  wood  of  the  Lord's  cross,  and 
relics  of  the  holy  apostles  and  martyrs,"  which 
were  deposited  in  her  church  with  great  solemnity. 
When  Eginhard,  the  secretary  and  historian  of 
Charlemagne,  founded  a  monastery,  he  sent  Ratleig, 
his  notary,  to  Rome  to  seek  for  relics.*  The  posses- 
sion of  the  relics  of  some  popular  saint  was,  in 
temporal  as  in  religious  matters,  a  great  advantage. 
It  was  the  veneration  for  St.  Martin  which  made 
kings  pay  special  respect  to  his  sanctuary,  and 
remit  taxes  to  his  citizens ;  t  which  made  pilgrims 
flock  to  his  shrine  to  pray,  and  ««ick  folk  to 
seek  healing,  whose  offerings  constituted  a  large 
revenue. 

In  such  a  traffic  there  was  evidently  ample  room 
for  imposture.  Gregory  tells  us  of  fellows  who 
went   about  with  pretended  relics,  |  not  only  de- 

*  The  story  is  given  in  minute  and  interesting  detail  by  Egin- 
hard himself,  in  his  "  History  of  the  Translation  of  SS.  Marcellinua 
uihl  Peter,"  Lib.  i.  2. 

t  Gregory,  ix.  30. 

X  Like  Chaucer's  Pardoner — 

"  That  streit  was  comen  from  the  court  of  Borne 

For  in  his  male  he  had  a  pilwebere 
Which,  as  he  saide,  Avas  oure  ladies  veil : 
He  saide  he  hadde  a  gobbet  of  the  seyl 
Thatte  Peter  had  whan  that  he  went 
Upon  the  see,  til  Jesu  Christ  him  hent.' 
He  had  a  crois  of  laton  ful  of  stones, 
And  in  a  glasse  he  hadde  pigges  bones. 

>  took. 


136  CflARLEMAQNE. 


ceiving  the  common  people  and  cheating  them  of 
their  pence,  but  impudently  thrusting  themselves 
into  the  houses  of  the  bishops  and  demanding 
respect  and  hospitality,  and  expecting  presents. 

An  impostor  came  to  Tours,  clad  in  a  colobiwrn, 
and  over  that  a  sindone,  like  an  Egyptian  hermit. 
He  carried  a  cross,  to  which  a  number  of  little 
ampullae  were  suspended,  containing,  he  said,  holy 
oil.  He  pretended  to  have  come  from  Spain,  bring- 
ing relics  of  the  martyrs  Vincent  the  Levite  and 
St.  Felix.  He  went  to  the  basilica  of  St.  Martin, 
and  sent  in  to  the  bishop,  commanding  him  to 
come  out  and  meet  the  sacred  relics  with  due 
solemnity.  When  he  saw  that  the  bishop  was  not 
to  be  imposed  upon,  he  threatened,  with  a  lofty 
air  and  pompous  voice,  to  complain  of  him  to  King 
Chilperic,  and  went  on  to  Paris.  When  he  entered 
this  city.  Bishop  Raynemond  was  walking  with  hi» 
people  in  procession  round  the  holy  places,  cele- 
brating the  rogations,  which  they  are  accustomed  to 
celebrate  before  the  day  of  the  Ascension  of  the  Lord. 
At  the  sight  of  his  strange  vestments  and  his  cross, 
some  women  of  the  town  and  rustics  joined  him. 
He  made  a  procession  of  them,  and  was  going  to 
make  the  circuit  of  the  holy  places  with  this  crowd 
following  him.     The  bishop,  seeing  this,  sent  his 

But  with  these  relikes  whanne  that  he  fond 
A  poure  parsoue  dwelling  upon  lond, 
Upon  a  day  he  gat  him  more  monie 
Than  that  the  parsone  gat  in  monthes  tweie. 
And  thus  with  fained  flattering  and  japes, 
He  made  the  parsone  and  the  people  his  apes." 


ECCLESIASTICAL  ANTIQUITIES.  137 

archdeacon  to  him,  saying  "  If  you  bear  relics  of 
the  saints,  place  them  for  a  little  while  in  the 
basilica,  and  celebrate  the  holy  days  with  us ;  and 
when  these  solemnities  are  over,  then  you  shall 
proceed  on  your  way."  But  he,  taking  no  notice 
of  what  the  archdeacon  said,  overwhelmed  the 
bishop  with  insults  and  curses.  The  bishop,  per- 
ceiving that  he  was  an  impostor,  ordered  him  to  be 
shut  up  in  a  cell.  They  then  examined  what 
he  carried,  and  found  a  great  bag  full  of  roots 
of  divers  herbs,  some  moles'  teeth,  bones  of  mice, 
claws  and  fat  of  bears.  They  threw  it  all  into  the 
river,  took  his  cross  from  him,  and  ordered  him  to 
quit  the  territory  of  Paris.  But,  having  made 
another  cross,  he  began  his  impostures  anew.  He 
was  taken  by  the  archdeacon,  and  put  in  chains. 
The  Bishop  of  Tarbes  recognized  him  as  a  runaway 
servant  of  his.  "  There  are  many,"  says  Gregory, 
"  who  by  such  impostures  lead  the  country  people 


* 


t 


astray." 

Another  instance  of  religious  imposture  is  given 
by  Gregory  in  his  "  Book  of  Miracles  "  (§  cvi.).  A 
certain  woman,  under  a  pretence  of  religion,  spent 
her  time  in  fasting,  watching,  prayer,  and  con- 
stantly making  the  round  of  the  holy  places  in 
feigned  devotion.  She  collected  money  for  the  re- 
demption of  captives,  and  in  course  of  time  had 
amassed  immense  sums,  which  she  hid  in  secret 
places.  We  need  not  go  on  to  describe  how  it  was 
found  that,  after  her  death,  the  ill-gotten  gold  was 
poured  molten  down  her  throat,  etc, 
*  ix.  40. 


1S8  CHARLEMAGNE. 


Pilgrimages. — The  custom  of  pilgrimage  is  cor- 
relative with  the  belief  in  relics.  Sick  people 
travelled  to  the  shrine  of  some  famous  saint  to  ask 
a  miracle  of  healing ;  devout  people  travelled  from 
shrine  to  shrine  to  seek  a  special  interest  in  the 
prayers  of  the  saints.  The  custom  prevailed  largely 
throughout  Christendom  at  this  period.  Rome 
was  the  great  object  of  pilgrimage  throughout 
the  West,  the  Holy  Land  being  practically  out  of 
reach.* 

Energumens. — Another  belief  of  the  times  was 
that  there  were  many  persons  possessed,  and  the 
utterances  of  these  energumens  were  listened  to  as 
utterances  of  superhuman  knowledge.f  There  is  a 
very  curious  example  near  the  end  of  Eginhard's 
"  History  of  the  Translation  of  the  Blessed  Martyrs 
SS.  Marcellinus  and  Peter,"  Lib.  vii.  c.  91. 

*  For  examples  in  the  English  Church  of  hermits  and  recluses, 
religious  widows,  relics,  and  pilgrimages,  with  essays  0:1  the.-o 
subjects,  see  "  Scenes  and  Characters  of  the  Middle  Ages,"  by  the 
same  author.     Virtue  &  Co.,  London,  1872. 

t  Kg.  Gregory  of  Tours,  "De  Mirac.  St.  Martini,"  §  xxv.  ; 
"  Historia  Francorum,"  v.  14,  etc. 


(     139     ) 


CHAPTER  IX. 

THE  CONVENT  OF  ST.   RADEGUNDA  AT  POITIERS. 

Eadegunda  taken  captive — Educated  and  married  by  Clothaire — 
Flees  from  court — Is  consecrated  a  deaconess — Takes  sanctuary 
at  St.  Hilary  of  Poitiers — Founds  a  monastery  of  women  there 
— Description  of  the  building — Of  the  rules — Venantius  For- 
tunatus  comes  to  Poitiers — His  relations  with  the  convent  of 
Radegunda— The  revolt  of  Chrodielda  and  forty  nuns— They 
flee  to  Tours — Return  to  Poitiers  and  take  sanctuary  at  St. 
Hilary's. 

Clothaire  I.  accompanied  his  brother  Theodoric 
in  an  expedition  against  the  Thuringians,  and 
among  the  booty  and  captives  which  fell  to  his 
share,  was  a  daughter  of  the  late  king,  a  pretty 
child  of  seven  years  of  age,  named  Radegunda.  The 
child's  beauty  pleased  the  king,  and  he  had  her 
carefully  brought  up,  with  the  intention  of  one  day 
marrying  her.  The  Thuringian  girl  was  committed 
to  the  care  of  a  Gallo-Roman.  family,  who  brought 
her  up,  not  like  the  German  women,  but  in  the 
learning  and  refinement  and  ideas  of  the  ladies  of 
the  Roman  nobility.  From  an  early  period  she 
showed   an  inclination  towards  the  religious  life. 


140  CHARLEMAGNE. 


When  at  length  Clothaire  sent  for  her,  she  fled,  "but 
was  caught  and  brought  to  court,  and,  in  spite  of 
her  reluctance,  was  married  to  the  king.  He  had 
other  wives  living,  indeed;  but  the  Church  was 
obliged  to  tolerate  the  Frankish  custom,  which 
allowed — or  was  it  the  license  of  the  Frankish  kings 
which  assumed  ? — a  privilege  as  large  as  that  of 
Solomon.  The  position  of  Radegunda  was,  in  the 
eyes  of  all  men,  that  of  a  lawful  and,  by  caprice  of 
the  king,  that  of  a  favourite  wife. 

But  the  young  bride  gave  herself  to  religious 
austerities  and  works  of  mercy,  so  that  the  king 
would  say,  "  It  is  a  nun,  and  not  a  queen,  that  I 
have  got."  She  disliked  the  rude  court,  and  loved 
the  society  of  the  learned  and  religious  men  who 
visited  it. 

What  brought  matters  to  a  crisis  was  that  the 
king,  on  some  suspicion,  slew  her  brother,  who  had 
been  brought  up  in  the  king's  household.  Rade- 
gunda fled  to  Noyon,  to  the  Bishop  Meodardus,  who 
had  a  wide  reputation  for  sanctity,  and  entreated 
him  to  consecrate  her  to  God.  The  bishop  hesitated ; 
the  Frankish  attendants  who  had  accompanied  the 
queen  in  her  hasty  journey  threatened  the  bishop 
■with  the  king's  anger;  they  sought  to  drag  her 
away,  and  the  queen,  alarmed  at  the  tumult,  sought 
refuge  with  her  women  in  the  vestry  of  the  church. 

When  all  was  quiet,  Radegunda  threw  a  nun's 
habit  over  her  royal  attire,  and  proceeded  from  the 
vestry  into  the  church,  where  the  bishop  sat  in  the 
sanctuary,  and  kneeling  before  him,  addressed  him  : 


THE  CONVENT  OF  ST.  EADEGUNDA  AT  POITIERS.    141 

"  If  thou  delayest  to  consecrate  me,  and  fearest  men 
more  than  God,  thou  wilt  have  to  render  an  account, 
and  the  Shepherd  •will  demand  of  thee  the  soul  of 
His  lamb."  Moved  by  this  solemn  appeal,  the  bishop 
at  once  consecrated  her  as  a  deaconess  of  the  Church. 
Then  she  fled  again  to  take  sanctuary  at  Tours,  and 
not  feeling  safe  even  there,  fled  again  into  the  in- 
terior of  the  territory  of  Aquitaine,  and  took  sanc- 
tuary at  St.  Hilary  of  Poitiers. 

The  king  at  first  stormed,  and  insisted  upon  his 
wife's  return.  At  last  he  was  pacified,  and  resigned 
himself  to  her  loss.  Then  he  generously  gave  up  to 
her  the  estates  which  he  had  conferred  on  her  as  her 
Morgen-gift,  and  allowed  her  to  carry  into  execution 
her  desire  to  found  a  convent  at  Poitiers,  and  endow 
it  with  her  possessions. 

The  house  was  three  years  in  building.  In  its 
general  plan  and  aiTangements  it  was,  in  fact,  a  Ro- 
man villa,  such  as  we  have  already  had  occasion  to 
describe,  with  all  the  usual  appurtenances  of  porti- 
coes, baths,  and  gardens,  and  with  the  special  ad- 
dition of  a  handsome  church.  As  a  precaution 
against  the  violence  of  the  times,  the  walls  were 
high  and  strong,  like  ramparts,  and  the  entrance  was 
defended  by  towers. 

During  the  time  that  the  material  fabric  was 
growing,  the  royal  devotee  was  gathering  and  train- 
ing her  nuns.  These  were  chiefly  of  Gallo-Roman 
race  and  of  noble  families.  When  at  length  all  was 
ready,  about  the  year  A.D.  550,  the  citizens  of 
Poitiers  were  greatly  edified  with  the  sight  of  the 


142  CHARLEMAGNE. 


ex-queen  and  a  long  train  of  noble  maidens,  pre- 
ceded by  ecclesiastics,  and  attended  by  friends,  pro- 
ceeding in  solemn  procession  through  the  streets,  to 
take  possession  of  the  sacred  retreat  which  they 
had  vowed  never  to  quit. 

The  foundation  deed  is  given  us  by  Gregory :  * — 
"  To  my  holy  lords  and  most  worthy  possessore 
of  the  Apostolic  See,  my  fathers  in  Christ,  to  all 
bishops,  Radegunda  a  sinner.f 

"...  I  have  constituted  and  founded,  by  the 
institution  and  bounty  of  the  very  excellent  Lord 
King  Clothaire,  a  monastery  of  damsels  {'puellarwni) 
at  Poitiers ;  I  have  endowed  it  with  all  which  the 
royal  munificence  has  given  to  me.  I  have  imposed 
upon  this  congregation,  which  I  have  gathered  with 
the  help  of  Christ,  the  rule  under  which  the  holy 
Csesarea  lived — a  rule  which  the  blessed  Cesarius, 
Bishop  of  Aries,  suitably  (convenienter)  gathered 
from  the  institutions  of  the  holy  fathers.  And  by 
the  consent  of  the  blessed  bishops,  both  of  this  city 
and  of  others,  and  by  the  choice  of  our  congregation, 
I  have  instituted  as  its  abbess  my  lady  and  sister 
(dotninam  et  sororem  ineam)  Agnes,  whom  from  an 
early  age  I  have  cherished  and  brought  up  as  a 
daughter,  and  I  have  submitted  myself  to  regular 
obedience  to  her  after  God.  And  in  conformity 
with  apostolic  usage,  both  I  and  my  sisters  have 
by   charter  surrendered   into   her    hands    all   our 

*  X.  42. 

t  "  Dominis  Sanctis  et  apostolica  sede  dignissimis,  in  Christo 
patribns,  etc.    Radegundis  peccatrix." 


THE  CONVENT  OF  ST.  RADEGUNDA  AT  POITIERS.    143 

earthly  possessions,  reserving  nothing  to  ourselves 
on  entering  into  the  monastery,  in  fear  of  the  fate 
of  Ananias  and  Sapphira." 

The  foundress  goes  on  to  beseech  the  bishops,  by 
the  most  solemn  adjurations,  to  protect  her  house 
against  any  one,  whether  the  bishop  of  the  place, 
or  the  representative  of  the  royal  authority,  who 
shall  attempt  to  alter  its  regulations,  or  to  take 
away  any  property  once  given  it  by  any  of  the 
sisters  on  entering  or  other;  and  to  secure  to  the 
community  freedom  of  election  of  their  abbess. 

The  study  of  literature  occupied  the  first  rank 
among  the  occupations  imposed  on  all  the  com- 
munity. Two  hours  of  each  day  were  to  be  devoted 
to  it ;  the  rest  of  the  time  was  occupied  in  religious 
exercises,  the  reading  of  holy  books,  and  needle- 
work. During  the  working,  which  was  done 
altogether,  one  of  the  sisters  read  aloud.  The 
most  intelligent  of  the  nuns,  instead  of  being 
employed  in  spinning,  sewing,  or  embroidery,  were 
busy  in  another  room  at  the  work  of  transcribing 
books.  Although  severe  in  certain  points,  such  as 
abstinence  from  meat  and  wine,  the  rules  tolerated 
some  of  the  comforts  to  which  the  ladies  had  been 
accustomed,  and  even  some  of  the  pleasures  of  a 
secular  life  were  permitted  to  the  young  recluses : 
e.g.  the  frequent  use  of  the  bath,  amusements  of 
various  kinds,  among  them  the  then  universal  game 
of  Tables. 

We  have  seen  that  Kadegunda  had  placed  Agnes 
as  abbess  over  the  community ;  she  herself  held  a^ 


144  CHARLEMAGNE. 


anomalous  position  as  founder.  The  ex-queen  and 
her  abbess  received  as  visitors  not  only  bishops 
and  clergymen,  but  also  laymen  of  distinction.  A 
generous  hospitality  was  offered  to  their  guests,  at 
which  the  ex-queen  presided  out  of  courtesy, 
though  abstaining  from  taking  any  share  in  the 
meal.  The  ycung  recluses  had  also  some  variety 
in  the  monotony  of  their  lives,  and  a  wholesome 
breath  of  society  from  the  outside,  when  dramatic 
scenes — probably  of  the  nature  of  the  mysteries  and 
miracle  plays  so  common  throughout  the  Middle  Ages 
— were  occasionally  represented,  in  which  young  girls 
from,  without,  and  probably  also  the  novices  of  the 
house,  appeared  in  brilliant  costumes.  Such  was 
the  order  established  by  Radegunda  in  her  convent 
of  Poitiers ;  a  compound  of  her  personal  inclinations 
and  of  the  traditions  preserved  for  half  a  century  in 
the  celebrated  convent  of  Aries. 

The  great  Bishop  of  Tours  was  brought  into 
special  relations  with  the  ex-queen  and  her  convent 
at  Poitiers,  and  to  him  we  are  indebted  for  some 
famous  subsequent  passages  in  its  history.  But  for 
the  most  curious  and  interesting  pictures  of  the 
daily  life  of  the  royal  devotee,  and  the  interior 
economy  of  the  convent,  we  are  indebted  to  another 
writer,  already  twice  mentioned,  who  is  one  of 
the  characteristic  personages  of  the  times,  and 
deserve',  a  special  description — the  genial,  pleasant, 
cultured  gentleman  and  man  of  letters,  Venantius 
Fortunatus. 

"  Bom  in  the  environs  of  Treviso,  and  educated 


THE  CONVENT  OF  ST.  RADEGUNDA  AT  POITIERS.   145 

at  Ravenna,  Fortunatus  came  to  Gaul  to  visit  the 
tomb  of  St.  Martin,  in  fulfilment  of  a  pious  vow ; 
but  the  journey  being  in  all  ways  delightful  to  him, 
he  made  no  haste  to  terminate  it.  After  having 
accomplished  his  pilgrimage  to  Tours,  he  continued 
to  travel  from  town  to  town,  and  the  society  of  the 
cultured  Italian  gentleman  was  sought  and  welcomed 
by  all  the  rich  and  noble  men  who  still  piqued 
themselves  on  their  refinement  and  elegance.  He 
travelled  all  over  Gaul,  from  Mayence  to  Bordeaux, 
and  from  Toulouse  to  Cologne,  visiting  on  his  road 
the  bishops,  counts,  and  dukes,  either  of  Gallic  or 
Frankish  origin,  and  finding  in  most  of  them 
obliging  hosts  and  often  truly  kind  friends. 

"Those  whom  he  left,  after  a  stay  of  a  longer 
or  shorter  period  in  their  episcopal  palaces,  their 
country  houses,  or  strong  fortresses,  kept  up  a 
regular  correspondence  with  him  from  that  period, 
and  he  replied  to  their  letters  by  pieces  of  elegiac 
poetr}^,  in  which  he  retraced  the  remembrances  and 
incidents  of  his  journey.  .  .  ,  He  freely  flavoured 
his  poetic  epistles  with  compliments  and  flattery. 
The  poet  and  wit  praised  the  kindness,  the 
hospitality,  of  the  Frankish  nobles,  not  omitting  the 
facility  with  which  they  conversed  in  Latin;  and 
the  political  talents,  the  ingenuity,  and  the  know- 
ledge of  law  and  business  which  characterized  the 
Gallo-Roman  nobles.  To  praise  of  the  piety  of 
the  bishops,  and  their  zeal  in  building  and  con- 
secrating new  churches,  he  added  approbation  of 
their    administrative    works    for    the    prosperity. 


146  CHARLEMAGNE. 


ornament,  or  safety  of  their  cities.  He  praised  one 
for  having  restored  ancient  edifices — a  pretorium,  a 
portico,  and  baths  ;  a  second  for  having  turned  the 
course  of  the  river,  and  dug  canals  for  irrigation ; 
a  third  for  having  erected  a  citadel,  fortified  with 
towers  and  machines  of  war.  All  this,  it  must  be 
owned,  was  marked  with  signs  of  extreme  literary 
degeneracy,  being  written  in  a  style  at  once 
pedantic  and  careless,  full  of  incorrect  and  distorted 
expressions  and  of  puerile  puns ;  but,  setting  these 
aside,  it  is  pleasant  to  Avitness  the  appearance  of 
Venantius  Fortunatus,  rekindling  a  last  flash  of 
intellectual  life  in  Gaul,  and  to  see  this  stranger 
becoming  a  bond  of  union  between  those  who,  in 
the  midst  of  a  society  declining  into  barbarism, 
here  and  there  retained  the  love  of  literature  and 
mental  enjoyments."  * 

The  monastery  of  Poitiers  had  attracted  the 
attention  of  the  Christian  world  for  fifteen  years, 
when,  in  AD.  5G7,  Venantius,  in  the  course  of  his 
travels,  paid  a  visit  to  Poitiers,  bringing  letters  of 
introduction  from  King  Sigebert  to  Radegunda. 
The  recluses  .seem  to  have  been  delighted  with  his 
society ;  he  was  equally  charmed  with  their  flatter- 
ing attentions.  He  protracted  his  visit.  A  friend- 
ship sprang  up  between  the  genial  scholar  on  one 
side,  and  the  ex-queen  and  the  young  abbess  on  the 
other,  which  may  be  compared  with  the  religious 
friendship  of  Rufinus  and  Melania,  or  of  Jerome 
and  Paula  and  Eustochium.  Venantius  settled  at 
•  Aug.  Thierry's  "  Narratives  of  the  Merovingian  Era,"  chap.  v. 


THE  CONVENT  OF  ST.  RADEGUNDA  AT  POITIERS.   147 

Poitiers,  and  became  the  friend  and  counsellor  of 
the  ladies  of  the  convent. 

A  number  of  his  poems  are  addressed  to  the 
ex-queen  and  the  abbess,  whom  he  calls  his  mother 
and  sister,  and  their  playful  gaiety  has  given  a 
little  occasion  for  scandal  both  in  ancient  and  in 
modern  times.*  He  continued  his  relations  with 
the  convent  until  the  death  of  Radegunda.  It  was 
perhaps  after  that  event  that  he  was  ordained  as 
one  of  the  priests  of  the  cathedral  church.  Towards 
the  end  of  his  life,  he  was  elected  Bishop  of 
Poitiers,  t 

On  the  death  of  Radegunda,  Meroveus,  Bishop 
of  Poitiers,  being  absent,  Gregory  of  Tours  was  sent 
for  to  perform  the  funeral  ceremonies.  He  found 
the  body  exposed  on  a  bier,  after  the  fashion  of  the 
times.  Her  countenance,  he  says,  surpassed  in 
beauty  the  roses  and  lilies  strewn  over  her.  He 
could  not  have  believed  her  dead,  but  for  the  lamen- 
tations of  the  nuns,  to  the  number  of  two  hundred, 
most  of  them  of  the  greatest  families,  and  some 
even  of  royal  extraction.  J 

*  M.  Guizot  and  M.  A.  Thierry  in  modem  times  have  re- 
presented that  these  poems  show  that  Fortunatus  was  a  luxurious 
hon-vivant,  and  that  the  ladies  of  the  convent  humoured  his  tastes 
by-  giving  him  dainty  banquets.  The  poems  do  not  bear  out  this 
view.  See  "  Erreurs  et  Mensonges  Historiques,"  by  M.  Ch. 
Barthelemy,  p.  186. 

t  The  hymn  Vexilla  Regis,  "  The  royal  banners  forward  go,"  is 
attributed  to  him. 

t  Lives  of  Radegunda,  written  by  Gregory  himself,  by  Fortu- 
natus, and  by  one  of  her  nuns,  have  come  down  to  us.  For 
modem  lives,  see  "  Histoire  de  S.  Radegonde,"  by  Ed.  de  Fleury, 


148  CHAHLEMAGNE. 


The  abbess  Agnes  did  not  long  survive  her 
patroness.  She  was  succeeded  by  Leubovere,  and 
it  seems  to  have  been  the  disappointment  felt  by 
the  "nuns  of  royal  extraction,"  mentioned  by 
Gregory,  that  the  election  did  not  fall  upon  one  of 
them,  which  led  to  one  of  the  most  famous  scandals 
of  the  age.  We  will  let  Gregory  of  Tours  tell  the 
story,  for  the  most  part,  in  his  own  words. 

"In  St.  Radegunda's  monastery  at  Poitiers  the 
devil  insinuated  himself  into  the  heart  of  Chrodieldis, 
who  called  herself  a  daughter  of  the  deceased  King 
Charibert ;  *  she  raised  a  great  scandal,  and  trusting 
in  the  fact  that  she  had  kings  for  her  relations 
made  the  Religious  promise,  on  oath,  that  when  she 
should  have  accused  the  Abbess  Leubovere  and 
have  driven  her  from  the  monastery,  they  would 
choose  her  in  her  place.  She  then  left  the  monastery 
with  forty,  or  even  more,  of  these  girls,  and  her 
cousin  Basine,t  the  daughter  of  Chilperic,  saying,  '  I 
go  to  seek  the  kings,  my  relations,  to  make  them 
acquainted  with  our  wrongs ;  for  they  keep  us  here 
in  humiliation,  not  like  daughters  of  kings,  but  like 
base  servants.'  She  had  forgotten,  this  miserable 
sinner,  with  what  humility  the  blessed  Radegunda, 
the  foundress  of  the  monastery,  behaved.     Having 

A.D.  1847 ;  "  Les  Saints  de  la  France,"  by  Ch.  Barthelemy ;  Aug. 
Thierry's  "  Narratives  of  the  Merovingian  Era." 

*  And  therefore  a  sister  of  our  Queen  Bertha,  •wife  of  Ethelbert 
of  Kent. 

t  Gregory  (v.  39),  says  she  was  the  daughter  of  Clovis,  the  son 
of  Chilperic,  who  was  murdered  by  the  command  of  his  stepmother 
Fredegonda. 


THE  CONVENT  OF  ST.  RADEGUNDA  AT  POITIERS.    149 

then  arrived  at  Tours,  she  came  to  us,  and  having 
saluted  us,  said,  'I  supplicate  you,  holy  bishop, 
deign  to  protect  and  nourish  these  maidens  whom  the 
Abbess  of  Poitiers  keeps  in  great  humiliation,  while 
I  go  to  the  kings,  our  relations,  to  reveal  to  them 
what  we  suffer,  and  return  here  again.'  I  said  to 
her,  '  If  the  abbess  is  in  fault,  and  has  in  any  way 
violated  the  canonical  oath,  we  will  go  and  find  our 
brother,  the  Bishop  Meroveus,  and  will  reprimand 
her  together ;  but  do  you  amend  your  conduct  by 
returning  to  your  monastery,  lest  luxury  disperse 
those  whom  the  holy  Radegunda  gathered  together 
by  fastings,  by  multiplied  prayers,  and  by 
abundant  alms.'  She  replied,  '  Not  at  all ;  we  shall 
go  and  seek  the  kings.'  And  I  rejoined, '  Why  do  you 
resist  what  is  right,  and  for  what  reason  do  you 
refuse  to  listen  to  sacerdotal  admonitions  ?  I  fear 
lest  the  assembled  bishops  should  interdict  you  the 
communion.'  This  is  indeed  what  we  find  ex- 
pressed in  a  letter  which  our  predecessors  wrote  to 
the  blessed  Radegunda  at  the  time  of  the  establish- 
ment of  her  convent." 

Gregory  here  puts  on  record  the  document  by 
which  the  bishops,  seven  of  them,  had  given 
Radegunda  authority  to  establish  her  monastery. 
We  need  not  quote  the  whole  of  it.  It  is  enough 
for  the  present  purpose  to  say  that  it  forbids 
any  who  had  entered  the  convent  to  leave  it 
again,  and  pronounces  against  any  such  fugitive  a 
threat  of  interdict  and  anathema.  The  bishop 
resumes : — 


150 .  CHARLEMAGNE. 


"  After  having  read  this  letter,  Chrodieldis  said, 
*  Nothing  will  keep  us  bacl^ ;  we  shall  go  without 
any  delay  to  seek  the  kings  whom  we  know  to  be 
our  relations.'  Since  they  had  come  on  foot  from 
Poitiers  without  a  single  horse,  they  were  tired  and 
exhausted;  no  one  on  their  way  had  given  them 
anything  to  eat,  and  they  had  arrived  at  our  city 
on  the  first  day  of  the  month.  There  had  been 
much  rain,  and  the  roads  were  interrupted  by  a 
great  quantity  of  water."  Gregory  advised  them 
at  least  to  wait  till  better  weather  for  their  journey, 
and  accordingly  they  remained  at  Tours  till  summer 
came.  Then  Chrodieldis,  confiding  the  rest  to  the 
cares  of  her  cousin  Basine,  set  off  to  find  King 
Guntram.  He  received  her,  honoured  her  with 
presents,  and  she  returned  to  Tours,  leaving  in  the 
monastery  of  Autun  Constantina,  the  daughter  of 
Burgolin,  to  await  there  the  bishops  to  whom  the 
king  had  given  order  to  come  and  inquire  into  her 
differences  with  the  abbess.  Meantime,  before  she 
returned  from  the  king,  many  of  her  Religious, 
assailed  on  different  sides,  had  entered  into  bonds  of 
maiTiage.  Chrodieldis  and  her  cousin  awaited  the 
arrival  of  the  bishops,  but  not  seeing  them  come, 
she  returned  to  Poitiers,  and  sought  an  asylum  in 
the  basilica  of  St.  Hilaiy,  where  she  gathered  round 
her  robbers,  murderers,  adulterers,  and  criminals  of 
all  kiuds,  ready  for  other  crimes  also,  whom  she 
enlisted  in  her  interest,  saying,  "  We  are  queens,  and 
we  will  not  re-enter  our  monastery  till  the  abbess 
has  been  driven  out  of  it." 


THE  CONVENT  OF  ST.  RADEGUNDA  AT  POITIERS.    151 

Under  her  direction  these  ruffians  issued  from 
the  sanctuary,  broke  into  the  monastery  of 
Radegunda,  dragged  the  abbess  from  before  the 
altar  of  the  holy  cross,  and  kept  her  in  confinement. 
This  was  just  before  Easter,  and  the  bishop  declared 
that  he  would  not  celebi-ate  the  Easter  Eve 
Baptisms  or  the  Easter  Eucharist,  and  that  he 
would  raise  the  citizens  against  them,  unless  they 
liberated  the  abbess.  An  officer  of  the  king, 
arriving  at  this  crisis,  took  the  matter  in  hand; 
attacked  the  sanctuary  and  rescued  the  abbess  by 
force,  and  punished  the  ruffians  by  cutting  off  of 
hands  and  ears  and  noses. 

After  long  delay,  a  synod  of  bishops  met  at 
Poitiers,  under  the  presidency  of  Meroveus,  and 
having  made  due  inquiry,  admonished  the  nuns  to 
return  to  their  monastery,  and  on  their  refusal 
pronounced  sentence  of  excommunication  upon 
them,  according  to  the  tenor  of  their  foundation 
deed.  Then  the  crowd  of  people  in  sanctuary  made 
a  riot,  and,  rushing  into  the  church,  made  an  assault 
upon  the  clergy.  Bishops  were  flung  down  on  the 
pavement,  the  deacons  and  other  clerks  rushed  out 
of  the  basilica  all  bruised  and  bleeding. 

Then  the  irrepressible  Chrodieldis  engaged  men 
and  invaded  the  villas  of  the  monastery,  and  whom- 
soever she  was  able  to  seize  from  the  monastery  she 
reduced  to  her  obedience  by  stripes  and  slaughter, 
threatening,  if  she  could  effect  an  entrance  into  the 
monastery,  to  throw  the  abbess  from  the  top  of  its 
walls. 


152  CHAELEilAGNE. 


When  King  Childebert  heard  of  these  disorders, 
he  directed  Maccon,  Count  of  Poitiers,  to  repress 
them.  In  the  end,  the  rebellious  nuns  refusing  to 
submit,  and  the  bishops  refusing  to  withdraw  their 
excommunication,  the  nuns  were  dispersed,  some  to 
their  relations,  some  to  their  own  houses.  Several 
returned  to  the  monasteries  to  which  they  had 
formerly  belonged,  because,  having  no  wood,  they 
were  unable,  from  the  cold  of  the  winter,  to  live 
together  longer.  Only  a  small  number  remained  with 
Chrodieldis  and  Basine,  and  there  were  great  dis- 
cords between  these  two,  each  wishing  to  take  pre- 
cedence of  the  other  {altera  cdteri  se  prceponere 
cuplebat).  At  length  Basine  submitted  and  re- 
turned to  the  convent,  but  Chrodieldis,  who  con- 
tinued obstinate,  retired  to  an  estate  accorded  her 
by  Childebert 


(    153    ) 


CHAPTER  X 

THE  CELTIC  MISSIONARIES. 

Columbanus — His  birth — ^Mission  to  Gaul — Fouuds  a  monastery 
at  Annegray — Another  at  Luxeuil — Controversy  with  the 
Gallic  Church—  Quarrels  with  King  Theodoric  and  is  banished 
— Founds  a  monastery  at  Bregenz — Another  at  Bobbio — Gallus 
— Other  Celtic  missionaries  among  the  Franks — Emmeran. 

While  the  monastic  institution  helped  to  preserve 
religion  amidst  the  gi-adual  corruption  of  the  Church 
in  Neustria,  it  was  the  chief  source  of  the  spiritual 
life  which  was  spreading  among  the  Franks  of 
Austrasia,  and  among  the  dependent  nations  on 
their  eastern  frontier. 

Ireland  was  at  this  time  the  seat  of  a  learning 
and  religious  zeal  which  oveiiiowed  in  a  crowd  of 
adventurous  missionaries  who  went  forth  to  spread 
the  Gospel  among  the  barbarous  nations  of  Europe. 
Columbanus  was  born  of  noble  parents,  in  Ireland, 
in  54)3,  the  same  year  that  St.  Benedict  died  at 
Monte  Cassino ;  he  was  trained  as  a  monk  in  the 
famous  monastery  of  (the  Irish)  Bangor,  under 
St.  Comgall.  In  the  year  A.D.  585,  at  the  age  of 
about  thirty,  he  crossed  with  twelve  companions 


154  CHARLEMAGNE. 


into  Gaul,  and  for  several  years  travelled  about 
preaching;  he  was  welcomed  by  King  Guntram 
into  Burgundy,  and  there  sought  a  site  for  a 
monastery.  On  the  confines  of  Burgundy  and 
Austrasia,  amid  the  defiles  and  forests  of  the  Vosges, 
he  built  a  small  house  on  the  ruins  of  the  Roman 
fortress  of  Annagrates  (Annegray).  Shortly  after,, 
leaving  some  of  his  monks  at  Annegray,  he  moved 
to  the  more  extensive  ruins  of  the  ancient  Lexovium, 
where,  clearing  the  tangled  thickets  which  had 
grown  over  the  once  celebrated  Roman  watering 
place,  he  erected  the  rude  buildings  of  a  monastery, 
cleared  the  neighbouring  lands,  and  sowed  and 
reaped  amidst  the  brethren.  His  rule  of  life,  sterner 
than  that  of  Benedict,  required  absolute  obedience, 
incessant  labour,  the  sparest  diet,  severe  restraint 
in  every  gesture,  word,  and  thought:  breaches  of 
rule  were  punished  by  severe  penances  and  even 
by  beating.  He  entertained  no  superstitious  belief 
that  these  austerities  were  in  themselves  meritorious. 
Jle  himself  gives  us  the  rationale  of  his  system. 
"Whosoever  overcomes  himself,"  he  was  wont  to 
say,  "treads  the  world  underfoot;  no  one  who 
spares  himself  can  truly  hate  the  world.  If  Christ 
be  in  us  we  cannot  live  to  ourselves;  if  we  have 
conquered  ourselves  we  have  conquered  all  things ; 
if  the  Creator  of  all  things  died  for  us  while  yet  in 
our  sins,  ought  not  we  to  die  to  sin  ?  Let  us  die  to 
ourselves;  let  us  live  in  Christ,  that  Christ  may 
live  in  us." 

For  twenty  years  he  thus  lived,  and  taught  and 


THE  CELTIC  MISSIONARIES.  155 

trained  men,  amidst  the  wild  solitudes  of  the  moun- 
tains, and  the  fame  of  his  monastery  spread  far  and 
wide.  His  ascetic  life  was  a  tacit  rebuke  to  the 
worldliness  of  the  Frankish  clergy,  and  his  adher- 
ence to  the  customs  of  the  Celtic  Church,  especially 
in  the  time  of  keeping  Easter,  provoked  animadver- 
sion. Gregory  I.  wrote  to  him  on  the  subject  as 
early  as  A.D.  599,  but  in  reply,  while  expressing  all 
due  respect  for  the  exalted  position  of  the  Bishop  of 
Rome,  he  maintained  his  own  independence,  and 
adhered  to  his  own  customs.  In  602  a  synod  of 
several  of  the  Frankish  bishops  addressed  a  letter 
to  him  on  the  same  subject.  In  his  reply  he 
expresses  his  thankfulness  that  he  has  been  the 
occasion  of  their  meeting,  and  wishes  that  they  met 
oftener,  as  the  canons  require.  On  the  Easter  ques- 
tion he  refers  them  to  his  letter  to  Gregory,  and  begs 
them  to  leave  him  in  peace  :  "  In  the  name  of  our 
common  Lord  and  Master  Jesus  Christ,  I  beseech 
you,  let  me  live  in  peace  and  quiet,  as  I  have  lived 
for  twelve  years  in  these  woods,  beside  the  bones  of 
my  seventeen  departed  brethren.  Let  Gaul  receive 
into  her  bosom  all  who,  if  they  deserve  it,  will  meet 
in  heaven.  For  we  have  one  kingdom  promised  us, 
and  one  hope  of  our  calling  in  Christ,  with  whom 
we  shall  reign  together,  if  first  we  sufier  with  Him 
here  on  earth.  Choose  ye  which  rule  respecting 
Easter  ye  prefer  to  follow,  remembering  the  words 
of  the  Apostle,  Prove  all  things,  hold  fast  that  which 
is  good.  But  let  us  not  quarrel  one  with  another, 
lest  our  enemies  the  Jews,  the  heretics,  and  pagan 


156  CHARLEMAGNE. 


Gentiles,  rejoice  in  our  contention.  .  .  .  Pray  for 
us,  my  fathers,  even  as  we,  humble  as  we  are,  pray 
for  you.  Regard  us  not  as  strangers,  for  we  are 
members  together  of  one  body,  whether  we  be 
Gauls,  or  Britons,  or  Iberians,  or  to  whatever  nation 
we  belong.  .  .  ,  Let  us  learn  to  love  one  another, 
and  praise  one  another,  and  correct  one  another, 
and  pray  for  one  another,  that  with  Him  we  may 
together  reign  for  evermore."  A  curious  spectacle, 
this  colony  of  foreigners,  Celts  amidst  Teutons,  men 
of  mortified  aspect  and  unnaturally  restrained  lives, 
amidst  the  rough  jovial  giants  of  the  forest,  differing 
in  their  religious  customs  even  from  the  clergy  and 
monks  of  the  Frankish  Church. 

During  these  twelve  years  those  dynastic  changes 
had  taken  place  which  we  have  already  had  to 
describe.  King  Guntram  at  his  death  had  left  his 
dominions  to  his  nephew  Childebert  of  Austrasia. 
Childebert,  dead,  had  been  succeeded  by  his  two 
sons,  Theodebert  in  Austrasia  and  Theodoric  in 
Burgundy.  The  aged  Brunhilda,  the  grandmother 
of  the  two  princes,  had  been  exiled  from  the  court  of 
Metz,  and  had  taken  refuge  with  her  younger 
.grandson  in  Burgundy.  The  chroniclers  accuse  her 
of  conniving  at  the  licentious  life  which  the  young 
king  led  in  order  to  maintain  her  own  influence 
over  him.  We  know  that  all  his  family,  with  few 
exceptions,  needed  no  encouragement  to  licentious- 
ness, and  would  not  be  restrained.  It  is  more  likely 
that  the  able  queen  simply  refrained  from  attempt- 
ing to   control  him,  and    tried    to   maintain  the 


THE  CELTIC  MISSIONARIES.  157 

interests  of  the  royal  house  as  she  had  been  doing 
for  many  years  past. 

The  fame  of  the  abbot  of  Luxeuil  attracted 
Theodoric,  and  he  often  visited  the  abbey ; — it  is 
common  enough  for  men  to  admire  the  ascetic  virtue 
which  they  do  not  care  to  imitate ;  and  the  abbot 
did  not  neglect  the  duty  of  rebuking  the  king's 
vices ;  but  this  does  not  seem  to  have  led  to  any 
quarrel  between  them.  But  on  one  occasion,  when 
Columbanus  had  gone  to  the  palace,  Brunhilda 
brought  to  him  the  king's  two  (illegitimate)  children 
and  asked  his  blessing  upon  them.  He  replied, 
"  These  bastards,  born  in  sin,  shall  never  wield  the 
royal  sceptre."  Seeing  that  it  was  the  custom  of 
the  Merovingian  family  for  illegitimate  sons  of  the 
king  to  inherit  together  with  their  legitimate 
brothers,  and  calling  to  mind  the  sinister  effect 
Avhich  such  a  prophecy  from  a  joopular  saint  would 
have  on  the  minds  of  the  people,  the  abbot's  reply 
had  a  veiy  important  political  significance  ;*  at  least, 
it  was  not  very  charitable,  and  it  was  the  occasion  of 
a  quarrel  between  the  queen-mother  and  the  abbot. 
She  is  said  to  have  avenged  herself  by  petty  annoy- 
ances, that  she  cut  off  supplies  from  his  monasteries, 
and  stirred  up  jealousy  between  them  and  neigh- 

*  It  may  be  an  early  iudication  of  the  endeavours  which  the 
Church  was  making  to  -restrain  the  licensed  polygamy  and  con- 
cubinage of  the  Merovingian  kings,  by  insisting  upon  the  ille- 
gitimacy of  all  but  the  issue  of  a  lawful  marriage ;  and  the 
indifference  of  the  aged  Queen  Brunhilda  to  a  license  to  which  she 
had  all  her  life  been  accustomed,  may  explain  the  accusation  of  the 
Church  historians  that  she  encouraged  the  vices  of  her  grandson. 


158  CHARLEMAGITE. 


bouring  convents.      The  abbot   repaired  again  to 
court  to  remonstrate,  but  seems  not  to  have  met 
a  friendly  reception  ;  on  his  part  he  refused  to  eat 
the  meal  which  the  king  sent  him,  which,  accord- 
ing to  the  customs  of  the  times,  was  an  overt  refusal 
of  friendship;   and  on  his  return  to   his  convent 
he  wrote,  threatening  the  king  with  excommunica- 
tion.    The  courtiers,  the  nobles,  and  bishops  (stirred 
up,   the    chronicler   says,    by    the    queen-mother) 
inflamed   the  king's  anger  against  the  audacious 
stranger.     Theodoric  repaired  to  Luxeuil  and  de- 
manded entrance ;  the  abbot  replied  with  menaces. 
"  Thou  thinkest,"  said  the  young  king, "  I  shall  confer 
on  thee  a  martyr's  crown.    I  am  not  so  foolish  as  to 
gratify  thy  pride,  but  thou  shalt  go  hence  by  the 
way  by  which  thou  camest."     Columbanus  refused 
to  leave  his  cell.     He  was  taken  out  of  it  by  force 
and  can-ied  away  to  Besan9on.     But  he  eluded  his 
guards,  and  made  his  way  back  to  Luxeuil.     Again 
he  was  taken,  and  with  two  or  three  of  his  monks 
huiTied  off  to  Auxeire,  thence  to  Nevers,  to  Orleans, 
to  Tours,  so  to  Nantes,  where  he  was  put  on  board 
a  ship  bound  for  Ireland.     But  a  storm  drove  the 
ship  into  some  harbour  on  the  Neustrian  coast,  and 
Columbanus  landed.     Clothaire  II.  besought  him  to 
remain  with  him ;  but  after  spending  a  few  days 
at  his   court,   and   giving   the   king   some   advice 
on  political  matters,  he  repaired  to  the   court  of 
Theodobert   of  Austrasia,  who  also   received  him 
with  all  honour,  and  invited  him  to  stay  in  his 
dominions. 


THE  CELTIC  MISSIONARIES.  159 

Many  of  the  brethren  from  Luxeuil  rejoined 
their  abbot  here.  He  made  arrangements  for  the 
well-being  of  the  monastery  at  Luxeuil,  but  for 
himself  he  resolved  to  set  out  with  the  monks  who 
had  come  to  him  in  search  of  a  new  home.  Em- 
barking on  the  Rhine,  and  turning  up  the  tributary 
Limmat,  they  reached  Tugium  (Zug),  on  the  shores 
of  the  Lake  of  Zurich,  and  began  to  preach  to  the 
pagan  Suevians.  But  they  seem  to  have  exhibited 
less  prudence  than  zeal.  Grallus,  one  of  his  monks, 
set  fire  to  their  temples,  and  Aung  their  idols  into 
the  lake.  Columbanus,  at  a  great  sacrifice  to 
Woden,  spilt  (by  miracle,  his  chroniclers  say)  the 
great  vessel  of  beer  which  formed  one  of  the  offer- 
ings (and  which,  perhaps,  should  have  ministered  to 
a  post-sacrificial  feast).  The  Suevi  rose  against 
them,  and  they  were  obliged  to  fly,  shaking  off 
the  dust  from  their  feet,  and  devoting  them  and 
their  children  to  misery  and  perdition.  Next  they 
travelled  to  the  Lake  of  Constance,  where  a  local 
priest  pointed  out  Bregenz  on  the  south-east  side  of 
the  lake,  where  were  ruins  of  a  Roman  town  and 
a  church  still  standing. 

Here  again  (at  Fontaines)  they  built  themselves 
houses,  took  possession  of  the  ancient  church,  destroy- 
ing three  idols  which  were  in  it,  cleared  and  sowed 
land,  laid  out  gardens,  and  planted  fruit  trees.  One 
of  the  legends  of  this  time  has  a  wild  poetry  in  it. 
One  night,  when  Gallus  was  engaged  on  the  quiet 
waters  of  the  lake  catching  fish  for  the  next  day's 
meal  of  the  community,  he  overheard  the  spirit  of 


160  CHARLEMAGNE. 


the  mountain  call  to  the  spirit  of  the  waters  :  "  Arm 
and  come  to  my  assistance.  Strangers  have  come 
and  driven  me  from  my  temple.  Haste  and  help 
me  to  expel  them  from  the  land."  To  whom  the 
spirit  of  the  waters  replied,  "  Lo  !  one  of  them  is 
even  now  busied  on  my  surface,  but  I  cannot  injure 
him,  for  he  is  defended  by  the  invocation  of  an  all- 
prevailing  Name."  Gallus  shuddered  at  this  un- 
earthly dialogue,  and  crossing  himself,  addressed  the 
spirits:  "I  adjure  you,  in  the  Name  of  the  Lord 
Jesus  Christ,  that  ye  depart  from  this  place, 
and  never  dare  to  injure  any  one  more."  Then  he 
ha-stened  home  and  told  the  abbot,  who  rejoiced 
at  this  manifest  proof  that  even  the  devils  were 
subject  unto  tlrem. 

But  he  was  compelled  yet  again  to  remove  and 
seek  a  new  home.  The  local  chieftain  was  hostile. 
Moreover,  Theodebert  had  been  defeated,  and  Theo- 
doric  was  marching  through  the  country  to  com- 
plete his  overthrow.  Columbanus  crossed  the  Alps 
with  his  disciples,  and  repaired  to  the  court  of 
Agilulf  and  Theodolinda,  who  received  him  gladly. 
Here  he  settled,  and  founded  the  monastery  of 
Bobbio,  in  one  of  the  Vaudois  valley.s,  which  long 
continued  to  be  a  centre  of  religion  and  learning 
to  the  north  of  Italy.  Clothaire  II.,  on  becoming 
sole  king  of  the  Franks,  sent  to  invite  his  return 
to  Luxeuil ;  but  he  spent  the  few  remaining  years 
of  his  adventurous  life  in  literary  labours  at 
Bobbio,  and  died  there  in  G15,  at  the  age  of 
seventy-two. 


THE  CELTIC  MISSIONARIES.  161 

When  Columbanus  crossed  the  Alps,  Gallus  had 
been  left  behind  sick,  with  two  other  of  the  brethren. 
He  founded,  on  the  bank  of  a  stream  running  into 
the  Lake  of  Constance,  the  famous  monastery  which 
stni  exists  and  bears  his  name.  He  declined  the 
offer  of  the  see  of  Constance,  which  his  virtues 
induced  the  duke,  the  bishop^  and  clergy,  and  the 
people  to  offer  him.  For  twelve  years  he  continued 
his  life  of  usefulness,  reviving  the  faith  in  the  see 
of  Constance ;  reclaiming  from  barbarism  the  district 
bordering  on  the  Black  Forest;  and  teaching  the 
people  the  arts  of  agriculture  as  well  as  the  duties 
of  religion.  After  his  death,  in  A.D.  627,  his  cell 
became  the  resort  of  thousands  of  pilgrims,  and  was 
replaced  by  a  more  magnificent  edifice  under  the 
auspices  of  Pepin  I'Heristal ;  and,  during  the  ninth 
and  tenth  centuries,  it  was  one  of  the  most  cele- 
brated schools  of  learning  in  Europe. 

Columbanus  was  follo\;  ed  by  a  number  of  other 
missionaries,  who  left  the  monasteries  of  Ireland 
to  preach  the  Gospel  in  the  Germanic  forests.  Their 
number,  and  the  permanent  success  of  their  labours, 
is  marked  by  the  veneration  paid  in  many  of  the 
German  towns  and  villages  to  this  day  to  local 
saints  of  Irish  name.  Our  space  will  only  allow  us 
to  mention  a  few,  in  order  to  indicate  the  gradual 
spread  of  religion  and  civilization  in  Austrasia  and 
its  eastern  dependents. 

Fridolin,  like  Gallus,  preached  in  the  neighbour- 
hood   of    Switzerland,    Suabia,    and    Alsace,    and 

M 


162  CHARLEMAGNE. 


founded  a  monastery  at  Leckingen,  on  the  Rhine. 
Magnoald  also,  or  Magnus,  the  pupil  of  Gallus, 
founded  a  monastery  at  Fiissen  in  Suabia ;  and 
Trudport,  an  Irish  anchorite,  penetrated  as  far  as 
Breisgau  in  the  Black  Forest,  where  he  was  mur- 
dered. Somewhat  later  (A.D.  64-3),  Kilian,  a  bishop 
of  lona,  sailed  from  Ireland  with  two  companions, 
and  selected  Wiirzburg  in  Franconia  as  the  scene 
of  his  labours,  and  was  assassinated  there. 

The  example  of  Columbanus  and  his  successors 
was  not  whoUy  without  effect  upon  the  GaUo- 
Frankish  Church.  A  synod,  held  in  A.D.  613,  ac- 
knowledged the  claims  of  the  heathen  on  then* 
sympathy;  appointed  Eustatius,  the  successor  of 
Columbanus  in  the  monasteiy  of  Luxeuil,  director 
of  their  mission,  and  sent  him  with  a  monk  named 
Agil  to  Bavaria.  About  the  middle  of  the  century 
(630),  their  labours  in  this  field  were  followed  up 
by  Emmeran,  a  native  of  Poitiers,  and  a  bishop  in 
Aquitania.  Moved  by  the  reports  of  the  heathen- 
ism in  Pannonia,  he  resigned  his  see  and  set  out 
thither.  Arrived  at  Batisbon,  he  was  forcibly  de- 
tained by  Duke  Theodo,  and  consented  to  labour 
among  his  people,  as  yet  only  half  reclaimed  from 
heathenism.  Before  the  close  of  the  century  (696), 
Rupert,  Bishop  of  Worms,  at  the  invitation  of  an- 
other Theodo,  sought  to  reclaim  the  people,  many 
of  whom,  after  the  death  of  Emmeran,  had  relapsed 
into  idolatry.  With  his  companions,  he  went 
about  from  place  to  place  preaching,  and  at  length 
obtained  from   the   duke   the  site  of  the  ancient 


THE  CELTIC  MISSIONAHIES.  163 

Juvavium — still  strewn  with  the  remains  of  Roman 
temples  and  baths — and  there  built  a  church,  the 
precursor  of  the  cathedral  of  Salzburg ;  and  on 
a  neighbourincr  eminence  erected  a  convent,  of 
which  his  niece  Ermentrudis  was  the  fii'st  abbess. 
The  Church  of  Salzburg  soon  became  the  parent 
of  many  others  in  Bavaria  and  Corinthia,  and  a 
missionary  centre  from  which  the  light  of  Christian 
civilization  was  diffused  over  the  neighbouring 
regions.* 

*  In  this  account  of  the  Celtic  missionaries,  we  have  borrowed 
freely  from  Dr.  Maclear's  "  History  of  Church  Missions  during  the 
Middle  Ages." 


THE  CAROLINGIAN  LINE. 
Pepin  (the  Elder).        Arnulph,  Bishop  of  Metz. 


I  I  I 

Grimoald  (mayor).      Beggu  =  Anegisus. 

Plectrudis  =  Pepin  of  Heristal  =  Alpaida. 


i  i  I 

Drogo.  Grimoald.  Charles  Martel. 


Carloman.  Pepin  (the  Short).  Grypho. 


Charles  (the  Great).  Carloman. 


(    165     ) 


CHAPTER  XI. 

THE  »LA.YORS   OF  THE   PALACE. 

Original  functions  of  the  major-domus — Gradual  growth  of  his 
jjowers — Pepin  of  Landen — Mayoralty  of  Grimoald — Supre- 
macy of  the  Neustrians  under  Queen  Bathilidis  and  the 
mayor  Erchinoald — Ebroin  elected  to  the  mayoralty — Keplaced 
by  St.  Ledger — Pepin  of  Heristal — Struggle  between  the 
mayors  of  Neustria  and  Austrasia — Victory  of  Pepin — His 
sole  mayoralty — Nominates  his  grandson  mayor  under  guar- 
dianship of  his  wife  Plectrudis — Charles  is  elected  Duke 
of  Austrasia — Struggle  with  Kainfroy — Obtains  the  sole 
mayoralty — His  wars — The  Saracen  invasion  of  France — De- 
feated by  Charles  Martel  at  Poitiers — Seizure  of  Church  estates 
— His  mayoralty — Carloman  and  Pepin  the  Short  succeed  to 
the  mayoralty — Carloman  resigns  and  becomes  a  monk — 
Pepin's  sole  mayoralty — Is  elected  king. 

The  major-domus  of  the  Frankish  kings  was  ori- 
ginally no  more  than  his  name  implies — a  kind  of 
steward  of  the  royal  household,  the  manager  of  all 
the  royal  estates  and  servants. 

The  office  gradually  gi-ew  in  importance.  We 
learn  from  Gregory  of  Tours,  that  in  his  time  the 
major-domus  was  also  virtually  president  of  the 
councU,  and  commander   of   the   armed   retainers 


166  CHAELEMAGI^. 


whom  the  king  maintained  in  his  service.  Tho 
king  usually  conferred  the  office  upon  some  dis- 
tinguished warrior  and  capable  man  of  affairs  in 
whom  he  had  confidence.  It  is  easy  to  see  that 
during  a  minority,  and  even  during  the  reign  of  a 
king  who  was  more  inclined  to  indulge  in  the 
pleasures  than  to  fulfil  the  arduous  duties  of  his 
rank,  the  major-domus  must  have  wielded  a  very 
considerable  authority  and  influence. 

It  was  when  Sigebert  I.  was  assassinated,  and 
Brunhilda  was  in  captivity,  and  the  Austrasians 
elected  their  son  Childebert  II. — a  boy  of  six 
years  old — king,  that  the  office  of  mayor  seems  to 
have  begun  to  assume  something  of  its  subsequent 
political  prominence,  as  representative  of  the  execu- 
tive government.  When  the  revolution  in  which 
Brunhilda  perished  stipulated  that  the  major-domus 
should  be  elected  by  the  people,  it  made  his  office 
a  constitutional  check  upon  the  royal  prerogative. 
When  Clothaire  III.  placed  Dagobert  on  the  throne 
of  Austrasia,  and  committed  the  actual  government 
to  Pepin,  the  major-domus,  and  Arnulf,  Bishop  of 
Metz,  then  it  was  that  the  possession  of  this  great 
office  by  the  most  powerful  of  the  Austrasian  nobles 
laid  the  foundation  for  that  gradual  aggrandizement 
of  the  power  of  the  mayor  in  the  family  of  Pepin, 
which  ended  only  in  the  usurpation  of  the  throne 
by  this  powerful,  able,  and  ambitious  race. 

Pepin  of  Landen  is  the  first  of  this  gi-eat  family 
of  whom  history  makes  any  mention.  He  appears 
to  have  been  the  hereditary  chief  of  domains  which 


THE  MAYOES   OF  THE  PALACE.  167 

correspond  v/ith  two  modern  kingdoms,  Holland 
and  Belgium.  The  fact  that  these  domains  were 
the  first  acquisitions  of  the  Salian  tribe  on  the  left 
of  the  Rhine,  would  suggest  that  the  ancestors  of 
Pepin  must  have  been  among  the  most  illustrious 
of  those  who  conquered  the  first  Frank  settlements 
in  Gaul.  His  position  on  the  Frank  frontier  over 
against  the  Frisians  must  have  made  it  necessary 
for  the  duke  of  the  march  to  maintain  a  large  force, 
and  to  be  skilful  in  war.  The  facts  that  his  wife 
Itta  is  counted  among  the  Frankish  saints,  and 
that  he  himself  founded  the  first  monastery,  that  of 
Meldert,  and  encouraged  a  great  religious  move- 
ment in  his  domains,  indicate  that  it  was  not 
merely  his  military  force  or  skill  which  made  him 
the  leader  of  the  Australian  nobles. 

When  Dagobert  succeeded  his  father,  and  became 
sole  king  of  the  Franks,  he  was  able  to  throw  off 
the  tutelage  of  Pepin,  and  to  assert  the  royal 
power.  And  when  events  led  to  his  nomination  of 
his  son  Sigebert  to  the  throne  of  Australia,  he  com- 
mitted him  to  the  guardianship  of  Cunibert,  Arch- 
bishop of  Cologne,  and  Adalgisil,  mayor  of  the 
palace,  and  found  pretexts  for  detaining  Pepin  and 
some  other  of  the  most  powerful  of  the  Austrasian 
nobles  at  the  court  of  Paris.  On  the  death  of 
Dagobert,  Pepin  returned  to  the  court  of  Metz,  and 
in  conjunction  with  Cunibert  took  the  direction  of 
afiairs. 

Pepin,  on  his  death-  in  the  year  639,  left  one  son, 
Grimoald,  and  a  great  contest  for  the  mayoralty 


168  CHAELEMAGNK 


ensued ;  the  claim  of  Grimoald,  the  leader  of  the 
aristocracy,  being  contested  by  a  certain  Otto,  who 
seems  to  have  been  the  candidate  of  the  popular 
party,  the  simple  Frank  freemen,  as  opposed  to  the 
faction  of  the  nobles.  Otto  was  assassinated  by  the 
Duke  of  the  Alemanni  in  642  ;  and  from  that  time 
for  fourteen  years  Grimoald  governed  under  the 
name  of  Sigebert  III.  His  administration  of 
Austrasia  seems  to  have  been  able  and  beneficial 
He  was  scrupulously  deferential  to  the  saintly 
king,  and  he  strenuously  defended  the  royal  pre- 
rogative :  historians  account  for  this  policy  by  the 
Secret  ambitions  which  the  sequel  disclosed.  The 
monastic  enthusiasm  was  at  its  height  in  the  north 
and  east  of  the  Frankish  territory,  and  the  mayor 
and  his  family  seconded  the  wishes  of  the  king  in 
its  encouragement.  Grimoald  aided  in  the  founda- 
tion of  the  two  abbeys  of  Stavelot  and  Malmedy 
by  St.  Remaclus.  The  mother  of  Grimoald,  St. 
Itta,  and  his  sister,  St.  Gertrude,  founded  the 
monastery  of  Nivelles.  His  other  sister,  St.  Begga, 
the  wife  of  Angesil,  the  son  of  St.  Arnulf,  founded 
the  abbey  of  Ardennes.  It  is  said  that  Grimoald's 
deference  to  the  king  was  prompted  by  his  desire 
to  induce  Sigebert  to  adopt  his  son  as  heir  to  the 
throne.  Failing  this,  on  the  king's  death  in  A.D. 
656,  he  cut  the  hair  of  his  son  Dagobert  and  sent 
him  to  a  monastery  in  Ireland,  and  placed  his  own 
son  on  the  throne. 

The  usurpation  was  premature.     The  Austrasian 
nobles  were  not  willing  to  yield  an  hereditary 


THE  MAYORS  OF  THE  PALACE.  169 

royalty  to  one  of  their  own  body ;  the  people  were 
not  prepared  to  recognize  any  king  but  one  of  the 
sacred  Merovingian  blood.  The  father  and  son 
were  sent  to  the  King  of  Neustria,  by  whom  they 
were  first  imprisoned  and  afterwards  slain. 

The  only  descendant  of  Pepin  was  an  infant  son 
of  Begga  and  Angesil,  viz.  Pepin  of  Heristal,  The 
late  attempt  of  Grimoald  had  no  doubt  obscured  the 
prestige  of  her  family,  and  had  thrown  the  politics 
of  Austrasia  into  confusion.  The  result  was  tlie 
subjectionof  Austrasia  to  Neustria.  The  able  Queen 
Bathildis  and  Erchinoald,  the  mayor  of  the  palace 
of  Neustria,  conducting  the  government  of  the 
young  king,  Clovis  II.,  extended  their  authority 
over  the  whole  of  the  Frank  dominions. 

On  the  death  of  Erchinoald  (658),Ebroin,  another 
Neustrian  mayor,  was  elected  at  a  national  assembly 
through  the  influence  of  Bathildis,  and  ably  espoused 
the  policy  which  aimed  at  maintaining  the  royal 
prerogative,  and  extending  it  over  the  whole  of  the 
empire.  But  on  the  death  of  Clovis  II.,  while  his 
eldest  son  Clothaire  III.  succeeded  him  on  the 
throne  of  Paris,  the  Austrasians  obtained  the 
nomination  of  his  second  son  Childeric  II.  to  the 
throne  of  Metz,  and  exercised  their  right  to  elect  a 
mayor  of  their  own — a  "new  man,"  named  Wul- 
foald. 

We  come  now  to  a  violent  counter-revolution. 
On  the  death  of  Clothaire  III.,  Ebroin,  instead  of 
summoning  an  assembly  of  the  people  to  elect  a 
successor,  placed  his  infant  brother  Theodoric  on 


170  CHARLEMAGNE. 


the  throne,  proposing^  to  continue  to  govern  in  his 
name.  But  the  people  of  Neustria  and  Burgundy 
opposed  this  coup  d'etat,  and  offered  the  crown  to 
the  Austrasian  king,  Childeric  II.  Ebroin  and 
Theodoric  were  sent  into  confinement  in  the 
monastery  of  Luxeuil.  Childeric  moved  his  court 
to  Paris.  The  most  able  of  the  opponents  of  Ebroin, 
Leodegaire,*  Bishop  of  Autun,  became  the  virtual 
minister,  though  Wulfoald  retained  the  title  of 
mayor.  But  Childeric  soon  developed  the  instincts 
of  his  race  ;  he  grew  tired  of  the  tutelage  of  Leode- 
gaire, and  sent  him  to  join  his  rival  Ebroin  in  con- 
finement at  Luxeuil ;  and  began  to  resume  all  the 
habits  of  a  despotic  king. 

This  resulted  in  the  king's  assassination.  The 
mayor,  Wulfoald,  fled  to  Austrasia.  Theodoric, 
Ebroin,  and  Leodegaire  came  out  from  their  seclu- 
sion, and  recommenced  their  intrigues.  Ebroin 
proved  the  more  able  man.  He  placed  Theodoric 
on  the  throne,  imprisoned  Leodegaire,  and  ruled 
with  a  strong  hand. 

Wulfoald  recalled  Dagobert  from  Ireland,  and 
placed  him  on  the  throne  of  Austrasia.  But  he 
also  exercised  his  power  too  despotically.  The  nobles 
rose  against  him,  deposed  him,  formally  tried  and 
condemned  him,  and  put  him  to  death.  Pepin  of 
Heristal  and  his  cousin  Martin  appear  after  this 
revolution  in  the  front  of  affairs,  and  it  would  seem 
as  if  the  young  dukes  of  Austrasia  had  been  the 
leaders  in  the  recent  revolution. 
*  St.  Ledger. 


THE  MAYOES  OF  THE  PALACE.  171 

In  Austrasia  this  revolution  definitively  settled 
the  power  of  the  aristocratic  party,  of  which  hence- 
forward the  family  of  Pepin  is  the  leader.  But  in 
Neustria  the  return  of  Ebroin  to  power  was  the 
triumph  of  the  opposite  principle,  for  Ebroin  vigor- 
ously maintained  the  powe'r  of  the  crown,  sought  to 
extend  the  influence  of  Neustria  over  Austrasia, 
and  therewith  to  extend  his  own  authority  as 
minister  of  the  crown  over  the  whole  of  the  Frank 
dominions. 

The  next  phase  of  the  history  is  the  struggle 
between  the  two  races  and  the  two  principles  for 
the  supremacy,  each  under  the  conduct  of  its  mayor 
of  the  palace.  We  need  not  enter  into  details. 
Austrasia  began  the  war,  and  in  its  early  years 
sustained  several  defeats;  but  in  the  battle  of 
Testry,  A.D.  687,  the  Neustrians  sustained  a  great 
defeat :  their  mayor,  Bertaire,  fell  a  victim  to  the 
rage  of  his  own  troops,  the  king  fled  to  Paris,  and 
there  surrendered  to  his  conqueror.  Pepin  treated 
the  king  with  respect,  and  concluded  a  peace  with 
him  on  the  condition  that  he  should  be  accepted  by 
the  king  as  mayor  of  the  palace  in  Neustria  as  well 
as  in  Austrasia.  Thus  Austrasia  finally  prevailed 
over  Neustria — the  Frank  over  the  Latin  element 
in  the  mixed  empire.  The  limitation  of  the  power 
of  the  Merovingian  crown  was  finally  won,  and 
Pepin  of  Heristal  grasped  the  virtual  government 
of  the  whole  of  the  Frank  dominions. 

The  sole  kings  of  the  Franks  since  Dagobert 
had  fixed  their  court  in  Neustria.     Pepin,  on  the 


172  CHAELEaiAGXE. 


contrary,  continued  to  reside  on  his  hereditary 
domains,  and  thus  transferred  the  centre  of  the 
government  to  Australia,  where  it  continued  for  the 
whole  duration  of  the  Frank  Empire.  Wisely  re- 
specting the  jealousy  of  the  nobles  and  the  attach- 
ment of  the  people  to  the  Merovingian  family,  he 
contented  himself  with  the  substance  of  power, 
which  he  wielded  with  wisdom  and  vigour  for 
twenty  years.  Yet  he  styled  himself  "Dux  et 
Princeps  Francorum,"  and  dated  the  public  acts  by 
the  years  of  his  own  rule  as  well  as  those  of  the 
king's  reign — "  Regnante  Rege,  gubernante  N. 
Majoredomus." 

The  special  feature  of  his  rule  which  it  concerns 
US  to  note  is  that  he,  no  longer  content  with  keep- 
ing the  barbarians  on  the  eastern  frontier  of  the 
Frank  dominions  in  check  by  frequent  warUke 
operations,  began  to  wage  a  war  of  conquest  against 
them,  and  to  plant  civilization  and  Christianity 
among  them.  Thus,  under  a  treaty  which  Pepin 
imposed  upon  Radbod,  the  Duke  of  the  Frisians, 
the  English  Willebrord,  with  twelve  companions, 
laboured  among  them  with  considerable  success, 
and  founded  the  see  of  Utrecht,  the  first  which  had 
been  founded  in  the  countries  beyond  the  limits  of 
the  ancient  empire. 

Pepin  of  Heristal  thought  that  his  long  and  suc- 
cessful administration  of  twenty  years  had  con- 
solidated the  power  of  his  family,  and  that  he 
might  treat  his  office  as  hereditary.  He  made  his 
two  sons  mayors  of  Neustria  and  Burgundy,  and  on 


THE  MAYORS  OF  THE  PALACE.  173 

their  death  he  nominated  his  infant  grandson  as 
his  successor  in  the  mayoralty  of  the  whole  king- 
dom, under  the  guardianship  of  his  wife  Plectrudis. 

But  the  times  were  not  yet  ripe  for  such  a  step. 
The  Franks  might  accept  an  infant  for  king,  pro- 
vided he  were  of  the  sacred  race,  because  the  king's 
duties  were  only  those  of  representation ;  but  the 
mayor  of  the  palace  must  still  be  the  real  chief  of  the 
people,  the  guide  of  their  counsels,  and  their  leader 
in  war. 

Pepin  had  left  another  son — these  mayors  of  the 
palace  assumed  as  much  licence  in  their  domestic 
relations  as  the  kings — by  a  second  wife,  Alpaida. 
St.  Lambert,  Bishop  of  Maestrict,  had  denounced  this 
second  marriage  as  adulterous,  and  Count  Odo, 
the  brother  of  Alpaida,  had  slain  the  bishop  in  the 
sanctuary  of  his  cathedral  in  revenge.  The  son  of 
this  second  connection  was  Karl,  or  Charles,  who 
had  inherited  the  great  qualities  of  his  father, 

Plectrude  feared  the  ambition  and  ability  of  her 
rival's  son,  and  had  him  imprisoned  at  Cologne. 
But  the  Austrasians  rose  and  released  him,  and 
hailed  him  as  Duke  of  Austrasia  in  his  father's 
stead. 

The  Neustrians,  also,  refusing  to  recognize  this 
hereditary  transmission  of  the  mayoralty,  elected 
Bainfroy  as  their  major-domus,  and  the  strife  which 
had  existed  between  Ebroin  and  Pepin  was  re- 
newed between  Baiafroy  and  Charles.  At  this 
crisis  Clothaire  IV.  died,  and  Karl  arranged  the 
rival  claims  by  consenting  to  acknowledge  Chil- 


174  CHARLEMAGNE. 


peric  II.  as  King  of  Austrasia,  on  condition  of  his 
own  recognition  as  major-domus  of  Neustria.  Thus 
he  again  united  in  one  hand  both  the  royalty  and 
the  mayoralty  of  the,  two  great  divisions  of  the 
empu'e  (a.d.  717). 

But  the  enemies  of  the  Franks  took  advantage 
of  the  weakness  caused  by  their  divisions  to  attack 
them.  The  Saxons,  aided  bj'^  the  Frisians,  invaded 
the  empire  on  the  side  of  Belgium,  and  five  times 
penetrated  to  the  Rhine,  and  five  times  were  de- 
feated and  driven  back  within  their  own  limits. 
The  Aquitanians  had  gradually  gi-own  into  great 
prosperity  under  their  hereditary  dukes  of  the  Mero- 
vingian race,  who  regarded  with  natural  jealousy 
the  rise  of  the  power  of  the  family  of  Pepin  on  the 
ruin  of  the  royal  power,  and  needed  the  experience 
of  more  than  one  unsuccessful  campaign  before  they 
recognized  the  authority  of  the  major-domus. 

The  Swabians  and  Bavarians  also  sought  to  re- 
sume their  ancient  independence.  But  the  active 
and  able  mayor  marched  his  Austrasian  warriore 
on  the  frontiers  of  the  Rhine  and  the  Elbe,  on  the 
Loire  and  the  Rhone,  and  everywhere  maintained 
the  authority  of  his  administration  and  the  integrity 
of  the  kingdom. 

And  now  a  new  and  more  formidable  enemy  had 
to  be  confronted.  In  a.d.  710,  the  Saracens  of 
Africa,  invited  by  the  treacheiy  of  Count  Julian, 
had  invaded  Spain.  One  great  battle,  in  which  the 
Goths  were  defeated  and  their  king  Roderick  slain, 
broke  for  ever  the  power  of  the  Visigothic  king- 


THE  MAYORS  OF  THE  PALACE.  175 

dom ;  and  within  two  years,  with  the  exception  of 
those  who  had  taken  refuge  in  the  mountains  of 
the  Asturias  and  of  Castile,  they  had  made  them- 
selves masters  of  the  whole  of  Spain.  Then  they 
had  crossed  the  Pyrenees,  and  established  them- 
selves in  Septimania.  During  fifteen  years  they 
made  incursions  over  the  south  of  Gaul  as  far  as 
the  Rhone,  and  even  penetrated  into  Burgundy. 
They  invaded  Aquitaine,  but  Eudon,  the  duke, 
defeated  them  and  drove  them  out  of  his  province. 
But  now  a  revolution  in  Spain  placed  another 
dynasty  on  the  Moorish  throne,  and  was  followed 
by  a  supreme  effort  to  carry  forward  the  Moham- 
medan conquests  into  Europe.  When  the  de- 
scendants of  the  house  of  Abbas,  by  a  successful 
revolution,  replaced  the  Ommayades  on  the  throne 
of  Damascus,  a  youth  named  Abdalrhaman  alone 
escaped  from  the  destruction  of  the  royal  family. 
He  fled  to  Spain,  and  was  received  there  by  the 
adherents  of  his  family  as  their  sovereign"  and 
established  a  separate  caliphate  at  Cordova.  Ab- 
dalrhaman sought  to  continue  the  long  career  of 
Mohammedan  conquest.  He  burst  into  Aquitaine. 
A  count  of  Poitiers,  who  alone  made  any  resistance 
to  the  invasion,  was  taken  and  decapitated.  The 
invaders  marched  on  into  the  very  centre  of  France, 
taking  some  of  its  wealthiest  towns.  They  ap- 
proached Tours,  the  hallowed  sanctuary  of  the 
patron  saint,  enriched  by  the  offeripgs  of  ages.  It 
was  not  a  mere  predatory  invasion,  like  those  with 
which   the   Moors  had  harassed   the   country   for 


176  CHARLEMAGNE. 


years  past ;  they  came  with  their  families  and  pos- 
sessions, intending  to  settle  on  the  lands  which 
they  hoped  to  conquer.  Duke  Eudon,  unable  to 
make  head  against  the  invasion,  sought  help  from 
the  powerful  mayor.  Charles  gathered  troops,  and 
hastened  to  the  defence  of  the  empire. 

It  was  as  the  Moorish  armies  marched  towards 
the  assault  of  Tours  that  the  army  of  the  Franks 
met  them.  The  Arab  authors  describe  the  meeting 
of  the  armies  as  having  taken  place  close  to  Tours ; 
the  Gallic  chroniclers  indicate  an  extensive  plain 
outside  Poitiers  as  the  famous  battle-field.  Per- 
haps the  series  of  engagements,  which  lasted  for 
several  days,  began  at  Tours,  and  the  decisive 
battle  took  place  at  Poitiers.  Abdalrhaman  was 
slain,  and  his  forces  were  routed  with  great 
slaughter.  The  survivors  retired  within  their 
own  limits,  and  the  progress  of  the  Mohammedan 
conquests  was  definitively  arrested-  It  was  one 
of  the  decisive  battles  of  history ;  it  obtained  for 
the  great  major-domus  the  name  of  Martel — the 
Hammer — and  the  lasting  gratitude  of  the  Christian 
world. 

The  special  feature  of  the  mayoralty  of  Charles 
Martel  is  that  the  character  of  his  civil  wars  against 
Neustria,  Aquitaine,  and  Burgundy  was  almost 
that  of  a  reconquest  of  those  countries,  accom- 
panied by  all  the  violences  of  barbarian  invasion, 
and  followed  by  a  political  revolution.  Austrasian 
Franks  were  settled  in  the  conquered  countries,  to 
garrison  them  on  behalf  of  the  conqueror.     The 


THE  MAYORS  OF  THE  PALACE.  177 

estates  of  the  Church  were  specially  seized  upon  to 
furnish  fiefs  for  the  soldiers  of  the  mayor,  and  it 
has  afforded  cause  of  undying  reproach  against  the 
name  of  the  Hammer  of  the  Saracens  that  he  thus 
set  the  example  of  plundering  the  Church. 

Charles  was  not,  so  far  as  we  know  him,  of  a 
character  to  plunder  the  Church  wantonly.  He 
pursued  the  policy  of  his  family  in  encouraging  the 
spread  of  Christianity  and  the  founding  of  churches 
and  monasteries  in  the  eastern  portion  of  his  do- 
minions and  conquests.  But  we  have  already  seen 
the  way  in  which  the  bishoprics  and  monasteries 
of  Gaul  had  aggi'egated  the  estates  of  great  and 
wealthy  families,  so  that  the  Church  held  a  very 
large  proportion  of  the  cultivated  lands  of  the 
countiy.  We  can  readily  suppose  that  this  was  a 
cause  of  military  and  financial  weakness  to  the 
state,  and  that  the  warlike  mayor  thought  it  true 
policy  to  convert  some  of  this  great  Avealth  to  the 
purposes  of  rewarding  the  soldiers  who  had  saved 
it  from  the  Saracen,  and  to  redistribute  some  of 
those  vast  landed  possessions  in  the  interest  of  the 
state. 

What  was  of  greater  importance  was,  that  amidst 
these  wars  and  revolutions  religion  and  learning 
had  greatly  suffered.  The  Church  of  Gaul  had 
fallen  into  disorder,  and  the  religion  of  the  countiy 
had  been  reduced  to  its  lowest  point  of  degrada- 
tion ;  and  these  evils  had  been  aggravated  by  the 
abuse  of  influence  by  the  mayor  in  thrusting  unfit 
persons  upon  the  benefices  of  the  Church.     Boni- 

N 


178  CHARLEMAGNE. 


face,  on  the  point  of  paying  a  visit  to  the  court  of 
the  mayor,  describes  it  to  his  friend,  Daniel  of 
Winchester  (a.d.  723),  in  these  terms  :  "  I  shall  find 
at  his  court  false  and  hypocritical  pastors,  enemies 
of  the  Church  of  God ;  murderers  and  adulterers 
clothed  in  episcopal  titles,  who  destroy  their  own 
souls  and  those  of  the  people.  .  .  .  What  have  I 
not  to  fear  from  the  influence  of  such  men  upon  the 
people  to  whom  I  go  to  preach  the  faith  of  Jesus 
Christ  in  its  purity!" 

We  shall  have  in  a  subsequent  chapter  to  deal 
connectedly  with  the  relations  of  the  mayors  of  the 
palace  with  the  Roman  See,  but  it  is  convenient  to 
mention  here  the  fact  that  when  the  Lombards,  who 
had  conquered  the  exarchate  of  Ravenna,  were  de- 
manding the  submission  of  the  city  of  Rome,  its 
bishop,  Gregory  III.,  sent  an  embassy  to  the  powerful 
major-domus,  asking  his  intervention,  and,  it  would 
seem,  offering  to  withdi*aw  the  nominal  allegiance 
which  the  Romans  still  paid  to  the  Eastern  emperor, 
and  to  transfer  their  allegiance  to  one  who  had 
the  power  to  protect  them.  It  is  difficult  to  see  in 
what  other  light  we  can  understand  the  fact  that 
the  Roman  ambassadors  tendered  to  the  Frank 
mayor  the  keys  of  Rome,  the  keys  of  St.  Peter,  and 
the  title  of  patrician.  A  request  to  that  effect  from 
Charles,  whose  alliance  was  sought  also  by  the 
Lombards  against  the  emperor,  was  enough  to  in- 
duce them  for  the  moment  to  suspend  their  action 
against  Rome. 

The  most  striking   evidence  of  the  undisputed 


THE   MAYORS  OF  THE  PALACE.  179 

authority  of  the  latter  years  of  the  rule  of  Charles, 
is  that  when  Theodoric  IV.,  the  successor  of  Chil- 
deric  II.,  died  in  737  A.D.,  the  major-domus  did 
not  appoint  any  successor,  nor  did  the  people  take 
any  step  towards  the  election  of  another  king ;  but 
the  mayor  continued  to  rule  for  the  remaining  five 
years  of  his  life,  and  then  was  able  to  transmit  his 
office  as  if  it  had  been  an  hereditary  office.  He 
divided  it,  according  to  the  German  custom  of  in- 
heritance, between  his  sons.  To  Carloman,  the  eldest, 
he  left  the  mayoralty  of  Austrasia ;  to  Pepin  that  of 
Neustria.  To  a  third  illegitimate  son,  Grypho,  he 
gave  some  provinces,  with  which  the  young  prince 
was  dissatisfied,  raised  war  against  his  half-brothers, 
and  went  through  a  series  of  romantic  adventures, 
which  terminated  in  an  early  death.  The  subject 
nations  again,  on  the  death  of  the  great  Karl,  made 
a  great  effort  to  reassert  their  independence,  but  the 
two  brothers  acted  in  concert,  struck  rapid  and 
powerful  blows,  and  speedily  made  good  their  su- 
premacy. They  found  it,  however,  prudent  to  fill 
the  vacant  throne  with  an  infant  Merovingian, 
Childeric  III. 

In  a  short  time  Carloman  laid  down  his  office,  to 
adopt  a  religious  life.  His  motives,  says  Eginhard, 
are  unknown,  unless  perhaps  out  of  love  of  the  con- 
templative life.  He  went  with  a  great  train  and 
with  costly  presents  to  Rome,  and  there,  by  the 
advice  of  Pope  Zachary,  he  became  a  monk  and 
built  a  monastery  on  Mount  Soracte ;  and  subse- 
quently he  retired  to  that  of  Monte  Cassino.     The 


180  CHARLEMAGNE. 


powers  of  the  empii-e  were  again  united  in  the 
hand  of  Pepin  the  Short. 

Pepin  was  not  deficient  in  warlike  energy;  he 
administered  the  aflfairs  of  government  with  a  firm 
hand ;  but  the  distinctive  character  of  his  policy  is 
his  alliance  with  the  Church.  He  took  Boniface 
for  his  adviser  in  ecclesiastical  matters,  and  aided 
him  in  reforming  the  abuses  of  tlie  Frankish  Church, 
and  bringing  it  into  closer  relations  with  the  Roman 
See. 

Throughout  this  period  we  feel  the  lack  of  a 
competent  contemporary  historian.  We  are  not 
told  what  led  up  to  the  accomplishment  of  the 
change  of  dynasty  which  had  so  long  been  impend- 
ing, and  which  had  proved  so  difficult  of  accom- 
pli-hment.  We  dimly  see  that  it  was  resolved  to 
counteract  the  superstitious  reverence  of  the  Franks 
for  their  Merovingian  kings  by  an  appeal  to  their 
religious  veneration  for  the  see  of  Rome.  It  was 
no  doubt  with  the  consent  of  the  principal  men  in 
Church  and  State,  and  no  doubt  after  having  pre- 
viously sounded  the  pope,  that  Burchard,  Archbishop 
of  Wurzburg,  and  Fulrad,  the  chaplain  of  Pepin, 
were  sent  on  an  embassy  to  Rome  to  ask  the  pope's 
solution  of  the  question  whether  it  was  right  that 
the  royal  name  and  dignity  should  be  borne  by  one 
who  had  ceased  to  have  any  real  power  or  authority, 
or  whether  he  who  possessed  the  authority  and 
endui'ed  the  labour  of  the  government  ought  not  to 
bear  the  name  and  dignity  of  king. 

The  pope's  answer  was,  as  had  no  doubt  been 


THE  ilAYOES  OF  THE  PALACE.  181 

previously  ascertained,  that  he  who  really  governed 
the  kingdom  should  bear  the  title  and  dignity  of 
king.  The  pope's  reply  was  made  known  to  the 
great  annual  assembly  of  the  Franks  at  the  ensuing 
Champ  de  Mai.  Pepin  was  raised  upon  a  shield, 
after  the  ancient  German  manner,  and  borne  thrice 
through  the  throng  as  the  recognized  king  of  the 
Franks.  The  religious  feeling  of  the  people  was 
also  appealed  to  on  behalf  of  the  new  dynasty  by  a 
solemn  anointing  of  the  new  king  in  the  basilica  of 
Soissons.  The  dethroned  dynasty  was  so  little  for- 
midable that  it  was  considered  enough  to  cut  the 
hair  of  Childeric  and  send  him  to  the  cloister.  He 
was  not  the  only  royal  monk ;  Carloman  was  already 
cheerfully  digging  in  the  garden  at  Monte  Cassino, 
and  a  Lombard  king,  Rachis,  was  cultivating  the 
vines  of  the  same  monastery.  True,  they  had 
voluntarily  embraced  the  religious  life,  and  he  had 
been  compelled  to  submit  to  it,  and  that  makes  a 
great  difference. 

The  danger  of  the  precedent  was  seen  very  clearly, 
and  pope  and  king  did  their  best  to  make  all  men 
understand  that  this  precedent  was  not  to  be 
taken  to  consecrate  the  title  of  every  successful 
usurper,  but  that  this  was  the  solemn  inaugm-ation 
of  a  new  dynasty  in  place  of  one  which  had  become 
incapable  of  fulMing  its  duties.  And  we  must  do 
both  pope  and  major-domus  and  Frank  people  the 
justice  to  say  that  they  had  not  been  hasty  in  de- 
throning the  Merovingian  dynasty,  and  that,  in  the 
language  of  the  high  politics  of  the  present  day,  they 


182  CHAELEMAGNE. 


only  recognized  the  logic  of  events  when  they  at 
length  acknowledged  the  Carolingian  dynasty  as 
royal. 

The  march  of  events  in  Italy  soon  afforded  the 
see  of  Rome  an  opportunity  of  claiming  from  the 
gratitude  of  King  Pepin  a  service  in  return  for 
the  crown  and  title  it  had  given  him.  But  we 
shall  find  it  convenient  to  take  a  separate  survey 
of  the  affairs  of  Italy,  which  were  bringing 
about  relations  between  the  see  of  Rome  and  the 
dynasty  of  King  Pepin  which  were  destined  so 
largely  to  affect  the  future  history  of  both. 


(     183     ) 


CHAPTER  XIL 

BONIFACE. 

Boniface,  his  birth,  etc. — Hia  missionary  journey  to  Frisia — Return 
to  England — First  visit  to  Rome — Missionary  work  in  Ger- 
many— Second  visit  to  Rome,  and  consecration  as  regionary 
bishop — His  labours  among  the  Germans — Third  visit  to 
Rome — Receives  the  pall — Organizes  the  Churches  of  Bavaria 
— Founds  sees  and  monasteries  in  Swabia  and  Thuringia — His 
influence  in  the  reformation  of  the  Gallic  Church— Council  of 
Lestines — Council  of  Soissons— Foundation  of  Fulda — ^Martyr- 
dom of  Boniface — His  character. 

We  have  next  to  speak  of  one  who  exercised  a 
greater  infiuence  upon  the  Church  history  of  this 
Frankish  kingdom  than  any  other,  not  merely  by 
the  larger  extent  of  his  own  missionary  labours 
and  successes,  but  also  by  the  completion  and 
organization  of  the  work  of  his  missionaiy  prede- 
cessors in  Eastern  Gennany,  by  the  revival  and  to 
some  extent  reformation  of  the  Church  in  Neustria, 
and  by  the  communication  of  new  energy,  power, 
and  unity  to  the  whole  Chui'ch  of  the  Frankish 
dominions. 

Boniface,  whose  original  name  was  Winfiid,  was 


184  CHARLEMAGNK 


of  a  noble  Devonshire  family,  (A.D.  680),  educated  at 
the  monastery  of  Nutcelle,  in  Hampshire,  and  at 
the  age  of  thirty-five  years  had  obtained  a  high 
reputation  for  learning  and  ability,  when  (in  A.D. 
716),  seized  with  the  prevalent  missionary  enthu- 
siasm, he  abandoned  his  prospects  at  home,  and  set 
out  with  two  companions  to  labour  among  the 
Frisians.  He  found  the  Frisians,  under  Duke 
Radbod,  at  war  with  Charles  IMartel,  devastating 
the  churches  and  monasteries  which  the  Franks  had 
already  founded  among  them.  Winfrid  was  refused 
permission  by  the  duke  to  preach  in  his  dominions, 
and  he  returned  home  to  England.  In  the  follow- 
ing spring  he  went  to  Rome,  where  he  remained 
for  some  months,  and  then,  with  a  general  authoriza- 
tion from  the  pope  to  preach  the  Gospel  in  Central 
Europe,  he  crossed  the  Alps,  passed  through  Bavaria 
into  Thuringia,  where  he  began  his  work. 

While  here  the  death  of  Radbod,  A.D.  719,  and 
the  conquest  of  Frisia  by  Charles  Martel  opened  up 
new  prospects  for  the  evangelization  of  that  country, 
and  Boniface  went  thither  and  laboured  for  three 
years  among  the  missionaries,  under  Willibrord  of 
Utrecht.  Then,  following  in  the  track  of  the 
victorious  forces  of  Charles  Martel,  he  plunged  into 
tlie  wilds  of  Hessia,  converted  two  of  its  chiefs, 
whose  example  was  followed  by  multitudes  of  the 
Hessians  and  Saxons,  and  a  monastery  arose  at 
Amoneburg  as  the  head-quarters  of  the  mission. 
The  Bishop  of  Rome,  being  informed  of  this  success, 
summoned   Boniface  to  Rome,  a.d.  723,  and  con- 


BONIFACE.  185 


secrated  him  a  regionary  bishop,  with  a  general 
jurisdiction  over  all  whom  he  'should  win  from 
paganism  into  the  Christian  fold,  requiring  from 
him  at  the  same  time  the  oath  which  was  usually 
required  of  bishops  within  the  patriarchate  of 
Rome,  of  obedience  to  the  see.  With  this  dignity, 
and  bearing  letters  of  commendation  to  the  Frankish 
major-domus,  and  to  the  Bishops  of  Bavaria  and 
Swabia,  and  the  chiefs  of  the  coiuitries  in  which  he 
pi'oposed  to  labour,  he  recrossed  the  Alps,  visited 
the  court  of  Charles,  and  under  his  protection  re- 
turned to  Hessia.  There  he  produced  at  once  a 
great  impression  on  the  minds  of  the  superstitious 
people  by  felling  the  great  sacred  oak  of  Thor  at 
Geismar,  and  building  a  church  out  of  its  timbers. 
He  laboured  successfully  among  the  Hessians  for 
ten  years  ;  heathen  temples  disappeared,  and 
churches  arose  in  their  place,  monastic  cells  were 
founded,  land  was  cleared  and  cultivated,  and  the 
pious  simple  lives  of  the  missionaries  won  the  hearts 
of  the  rude  tribesmen.  An  appeal  to  his  native 
England  for  more  labourers  brought  him  out  both 
men  and  women,  books,  and  other  supplies.  He 
planted  monastic  colonies  at  Ordrop,  Fritzlar,  and 
Hamanaburg.  On  the  death  of  Gregory  II.,  ia  the 
same  year  in  which  Charles  Martel  gained  his 
great ,  victory  over  the  Saracens,  Boniface  again 
visited  Rome,  and  this  time  with  a  numerous 
retinue  of  Franks,  Burgundians,  and  Anglo-Saxons. 
The  new  pope  received  the  most  successful  mis- 
sionary bishop  of  the  time  with  deserved  honoui', 


186  CHARLEMAGNE. 


invested  him  with  the  pall,  gave  him  the  authority 
of  a  legate  of  the  Roman  See,  and  authorized  him 
to  visit  and  regulate  the  Bavarian  Church.  On  his 
return  through  Bavaria,  in  concert  "svith  its  Duke 
Odilo,  he  executed  this  commission,  and  added  to 
the  solitary  see  of  Passaa  those  of  Salzburg,  Frei- 
singen,  and  Ratisbon,  with  a  view  to  regulate  the 
ecclesiastical  lawlessness  which  prevailed.  He  was 
now  joined  by  a  kinswoman,  Walpurga,  who  had 
been  a  nun  in  the  convent  of  Wimburn,  and  who 
had  brought  out  with  her  thirty  sisters ;'  and  by 
their  help  he  founded  convents  of  women  at 
Heidenheim,  in  Swabia,  where  Walpurga  and  her 
brother  built  a  church  and  a  double  monastery  of 
monks  and  nuns,  others  at  Bischofsheim  on  the 
Tuber,  at  Kilzingen  in  Franconia,  in  Thuringia, 
and  in  Bavaria.  He  also  founded  four  new  sees  in 
Hessia  and  Thuringia. 

In  741,  the  great  Charles  Martel  died.  Boniface 
had  the  eutire  confidence  of  his  sons  and  successors, 
Carloman  and  Pepin.  They,  as  we  have  seen,  had 
first  to  suppress  the  revolt  of  the  dependent  nations ; 
that  done,  they  set  themselves  to  that  which  is  the 
characteristic  work  of  their  reign,  the  reformation 
of  the  Frank  Church. 

Hitherto  we  have  seen  Boniface  only  as  a  mis- 
sionary of  a  grand  and  statesmanlike  calibre, 
evangelizing  heathen  nations,  and  organizing  among 
them  the  institutions  of  the  Church.  The  genius 
which  he  had  shown  in  this  work,  and  the  ex- 
perience he   had   gained   in  it,  were  now  to  be 


BONIFACE.  187 


employed  in  the  restoration  of  order  and  religion  in 
the  Churches  of  "Neustria  and  Austrasia.  It  was 
not  only  his  personal  qualities  which  fitted  him  to 
be  the  adviser  of  the  ecclesiastical  policy  of  the 
mayors  of  the  palace ;  his  official  character  as 
Legate  of  the  Roman  See  gave  him  a  prestige, 
which,  backed  by  the  power  of  the  mayors,  enabled 
him  to  play  the  part  of  visitor  of  the  Churches  and 
corrector  of  their  abuses.  It  was  indeed  an  unpre- 
cedented exercise  of  the  authority  of  the  Bishop  of 
Rome.  But  the  disorder  in  the  Frankish  Church, 
the  abeyance  of  metropolitan  authority,  the  disuse 
of  synods,  the  disorderly  lives  of  the  bishops  and 
clergy,  the  general  decay  of  religion,  the  want  of 
some  harmonizing  and  controlling  authority  over 
the  Churches  of  the  various  states  which  were  in- 
cluded within  the  Frankish  dominions,  and  over 
the  monasteries  and  clergy  of  the  Celtic  school, — all 
these  things  probably  led  men  to  recognize  the 
utility  of  a  central  authority  with  a  vast  prestige, 
which  could  step  in  and  reduce  to  order  and  har- 
mony the  whole  ecclesiastical  system  within  the 
Frankish  dominions.  The  patriarchal  authority 
which  the  Roman  See  had  for  some  centuries  been 
claiming,  had  become  familiar  to  the  thoughts  of 
men,  and  seemed  to  offer  such  a  central  authority. 
The  vast  services,  the  personal  character  of  Boniface, 
served  to  recommend  the  legatine  power  with 
which  he  was  invested.  The  mayors  of  the  palace 
welcomed  so  statesmanlike  a  plan  for  the  refor- 
mation and  consolidation  of  the  Church  within  their 


188  CHARLEMAGNE. 


dominions;  the  bishops  were  perhaps  conscious 
that  their  previous  disorders  deprived  them  of  the 
power  of  resistance  to  the  proposed  method  of 
reforming  them. 

At  a  preliminary  council,  held  A.D.  742,  Boniface 
laid  before  the  mayors  and  their  principal  council- 
lors the  reforms  which  he  advised ;  and  ^vhen  the 
way  had  thus  been  prepared,  an  assembly  was  con- 
voked at  Lestines  in  the  following  year  (743),  for  a 
general  consideration  and  resettlement  of  the  affairs 
of  the  Church  throughout  the  Frank  dominions.  On 
one  hand  the  Church  had  to  complain  of  the  State. 
Charles  Martel  had  laid  hands  freely  on  the  pro- 
perty of  the  Churches  to  support  the  expenses  of  his 
wars ;  he  had  granted  its  estates,  as  rewards  to  his 
followers.  The  Church  had  to  complain  of  the  pre- 
sentation of  unfit  men  to  bishoprics  and  abbeys, 
and  of  a  wide-spread  practice  of  simony.  On  the 
other  hand,  eamest-minded  men  had  to  complain  of 
the  Church ;  of  bishops  who  lived  secular  lives,  and 
who  did  not  look  after  their  clergy ;  of  clergymen 
who  neglected  their  flocks,  and  made  no  effort  to 
exterminate  the  heathenism  which  still  lingered 
among  them. 

This  famous  council  of  Lestines,  like  many 
of  the  assemblies  of  this  period,  consisted  of  the 
nobles  and  councillors  of  the  sovereign,  as  well  as 
of  the  bishops  and  abbots  of  the  Cliurch,  and  was 
half  royal  council,  half  ecclesiastical  synod.  The 
importance  of  the  assembly  will  be  seen  at  once  in 
the  fact  that  it  was  the  first  synod  which  had 


BONIFACE,  189 


assembled,  at  least  in  Austrasian  France,  for  eighty 
years.  We  can  only  briefly  name  some  of  the  most 
important  regulations  of  this  council.  First,  the 
decrees  of  the  coimcil  went  forth  in  the  name  and 
on  the  authority  of  the  mayors.  The  French  Church 
formally  recognized  the  patriarchal  authority  of  the 
Roman  See ;  the  jurisdiction  of  Boniface  as  papal 
legate  over  the  other  bishops  was  duly  confirmed ; 
the  metropolitan  system  was  revived;  it  was 
enacted  that,  as  a  token  of  their  willing  subjection 
to  the  see  of  Rome,  all  metropolitans  should  re- 
quest the  pallium  at  the  hands  of  the  pope,  and 
obey  his  lawful  commands  ;  that  synods  should  be 
held  yearly.  It  arranged  the  question  of  Church 
property  by  a  compromise  which  recognized  all  the 
property  which  had  got  into  the  hands  of  laymen 
as  Church  property,  to  revert  to  the  Church  on  the 
death  of  the  present  holders,  who  were  to  pay  a 
'  quit  rent ;  but  left  it  vaguely  in  the  power  of  the 
prince  to  use  the  property  of  the  Churches  in  a 
similar  way  in  state  emergencies,  provided  the 
Churches  were  in  no  case  reduced  to  poverty. 
Disciplinary  regulations  were  made  requiring  clerical 
celibacy ;  forbidding  the  clergy  to  carry  arms,  to 
serve  in  war,  to  hunt  or  hawk— this  was  clearly 
aimed  at  the  bishops ;  others  requiring  the  clergy 
to  be  obedient  to  their  bishops,  to  receive  him  at 
his  visitation,  and  give  a  faithful  account  of  the 
state  of  their  parishes ;  others  requiring  bishops  and 
clergy  to  be  diligent  to  suppress  the  remains  of 
heathenism. 


190  CHARLEMAGNE. 


We  can  hardly  help  regarding  all  the  steps  by 
•which  the  papal  power  was  gradually  extended 
with  the  prejudice  derived  from  our  knowledge  of 
the  monstrous  height  to  which  it  ultimately  grew. 
But  if  we  estimate  fairly  what  was  done  at  this 
important  council,  we  shall  see  that  there  is  much 
to  be  said  in  its  favour.  The  barbarians  regarded 
Eome  with  an  almost  superstitious  reverence,  and 
regarded  the  Bishop  of  Rome  as  the  greatest  bishop 
of  the  West.  All  that  was  done  at  this  council 
amounted  to  the  recognition  by  the  Church  of  the 
Frank  dominions  of  the  patriarchal  authority  of 
Rome,  and  to  the  admission  that  the  patriarchal 
authority  included  a  right  of  visitation  and  regula- 
tion of  the  Churches.  It  was  the  manifest  utility 
of  such  a  central  authority,  under  the  circumstances 
of  the  times,  which  led  to  the  ready  acceptance 
of  its  interposition.  And  if  this  patriarchal  au- 
thority had  never  gone  further  than  the  encourage- 
ment and  regulation  of  missions  to  the  heathen, 
and  the  summoning  of  Churches  which  had  fallen 
into  disorder  to  hold  a  synod  and  put  their  affairs 
in  order,  the  Churches  of  the  West  might  have  been 
content  to  assent  to  so  useful  an  authority  to  the 
present  day.  The  subsequent  history  makes  it 
clear  that  neither  the  Caroliugian  princes,  nor 
Boniface,  nor  the  Frankish  Church,  intended  to 
recognize  anything  more  in  Rome  than  a  patri- 
archal authority  as  it  existed  in  the  ancient  con- 
stitution of  the  Church,  though  by  this  formal 
adhesion  of  the  Frank  State  and  Church  they  un- 


BONIFACE,  191 


doubtedly  gave  it  a  power  which  materially  helped 
its  subsequent  pretensions. 

The  next  important  step  in  the  history  is  worth 
giving   in   detail,   since   it   brings   into    one   vievi 
several  of  the  characteristic  features  of  the  condition 
of  the  Frankish  Church  at  this  time.     In  the  yeai 
744,  Gerald,  Bishop  of  Mentz,  was  slain  in  a  war 
like    expedition    against    the   Saxons.      His    son 
Gwillieb,   though    only   a    layman   in    Carloman's 
court,  was,  by  the  mayor's  influence,  consecrated 
as  his  successor.     In  the  following  year,  Carloman 
led  another  army  against  the  Saxons,  and  Bishop 
Gwillieb  followed  in  his  train.     When  the  armies 
found  themselves  face  to  face  on  either  side  of  the 
river  Wiseraha,  Gwillieb  sent  a  messenger  to  in- 
quire the   name  of  the   chief  who  had   slain  his 
father,  and  having  ascertained  it,  he  sent  him  an 
invitation  to  meet  him  in  friendly  conference  in 
the  midst  of  the  shallow  stream.     The  chief  com- 
plied.   The  two  met  in  mid-stream,  and  during  the 
conference   the   bishop  stabbed  the  Saxon  to  the 
heart.     The  act  of  the  bishop  was  the  signal  for  a 
general  engagement,  in  which  Carloman  gained  a 
decisive  victory.    When  Gwillieb  was  remonstrated 
with,  he  replied,  "  Because  I  am  a  bishop,  shall  I 
not  revenge  my  father's  murder  ?  "  and  he  returned 
to  his  diocese  as  if  nothing  had  happened.      All 
this  is  an  illustration  of  the  former  state  of  the 
Frankish  Church.     What  follows  marks  the  begin- 
ning of  the  new  and  better  state.     At  the  synod  of 
the  following  year,  Boniface  made  a  formal  charge 


192  CHARLEMAGNE. 


against  the  homicide  bishop,  and  Gwilleib  found 
himself  unable  to  resist  a  sentence  of  deposition. 
Boniface,  with  Carloman's  consent,  assumed  the 
vacant  see  of  Mentz  as  metropolitan,  whence  he 
exercised  jurisdiction  over  the  dioceses  of  Mentz, 
"Worms,  Spires,  Tongi'es,  Cologne,  and  Utrecht,  as 
well  as  over  the  nations  he  had  won  to  the  Christian 
faith. 

At  a  council  held  at  Soissons  in  744,  under  the 
joint  authority  of  the  two  mayors,  among  other 
things  done,  Adalbert  and  Clemens,  two  of  Boni- 
face's most  energetic  opponents,  were  formally  con- 
demned. The  former  was  apparently  a  fanatic,  with 
a  strong  following  among  the  lower  classes;  the 
latter  the  champion  of  the  Celtic  school,  which  was 
strong  in  the  eastern  part  of  the  Frankish  do- 
minions, and  whose  maintenance  of  different  eccle- 
siastical customs  and  sturdy  spirit  of  independence 
had,  since  Columbanus's  time,  been  a  source  of  dis- 
cord in  the  Frankish  Church. 

In  A.D.  744,  Boniface  founded  in  the  wild  forest 
of  Bucchenau,  in  the  hilly  country  between  Hesse 
and  Bavaria,  a  hundred  miles  east  of  the  Rhine, 
the  monastery  of  Fulda,  which  was  destined  to 
become,  among  the  monasteries  of  Germany,  what 
Monte  Cassino  already  was  in  Italy. 

After  Carloman's  abdication,  in  A.D.  747,  Boni- 
face began  to  withdraw  from  public  life,  requesting 
the  pope  to  depute  some  one  else  as  papal  com- 
missary at  the  synods.  He  resigned  his  see  of 
Mentz,  appointing    his   countryman    and   disciple 


BONIFACE.  193 


Lull  as  his  successor.  It  had  been  his  intention  to 
end  his  days  in  his  monastery  of  Fulda,  but  feeling 
attracted  towards  the  scene  of  his  early  labours,  he 
set  out  once  more  on  a  missionary  visit  to  Frisia. 
Many  thousands  were  baptized,  and  Boniface  ap- 
pointed a  large  number  of  them  to  meet  him  at 
a  place  near  Docum,  on  Whitsun  Eve,  to  receive 
the  rite  of  confirmation.  Instead  of  the  converts 
whom  he  expected,  he  found  himself  surrounded 
by  a  body  of  armed  pagans.  Boniface  forbade 
resistance,  and  they  conferred  on  him  a  martyr's 
death.  The  book  of  the  Gospels  which  he  held 
in  his  hand  when  he  was  killed,  and  which  was 
stained  with  his  blood,  is  still  kept  as  a  relic. 

Boniface  was  not  only  a  zealous  missionary,  an 
earnest  preacher,  a  learned  scholar,  but  he  was  a 
statesman  and  an  able  administrator.  He  not  only 
spread  the  Gospel  among  the  heathen,  but  he  or- 
ganized the  Church  among  the  newlj^  converted 
nations  of  Germany;  he  regulated  the  disorder 
which  existed  in  the  Frankish  Church,  and  estab- 
lished the  relations  between  Church  and  State  on 
a  settled  basis. 

The  mediaeval  analysts  tell  us  that  Boniface 
crowned  Pepin  king,  and  modern  writers  have 
usually  reproduced  the  statement.  "  Bettberg,  and 
the  able  writer  of  the  biography  of  Boniface  in 
Herzog  (Real  Ecyk,  s.v.),  argue  satisfactorily  from 
Boniface's  letters  that  he  took  no  part  in  Pepin's 
coronation."  * 

*  Smith's  "  Dictionary  of  Christian  Biography." 

O 


194  CHARLEMAGNE. 


When  Boniface  withdrew  from  the  active  super- 
vision of  the  Frankish  Churches,  it  is  probable  that 
his  place  was  to  some  extent  supplied  in  the  coun- 
cils of  the  mayor  and  in  the  synods  of  the  Church 
by  Chrodegang,  Bishop  of  Metz,  a  man  whose 
character  and  influence  in  the  history  of  the  Frank 
Church  have  hardly  hitherto  been  appreciated.* 
Born  of  noble  parents  in  the  early  pai-t  of  the 
eighth  centuiy,  he  passed  the  early  part  of  his  life 
at  court,  and  was  promoted  by  Charles  Martel  to 
the  office  of  "  Eeferendarius,"  or  chancellor.  '  By 
favour  of  Pepin  he  was  in  842  elected  to  the  impor- 
tant see  of  Metz,  still  retaining  his  civil  office,  and 
is  one  of  the  first  of  the  long  line  of  statesman- 
bishops  which  did  not  terminate  in  Europe  till  the 
seventeenth  century.  A  man  of  great  ability  and 
force  of  character,  one  of  the  most  trusted  coun- 
sellors of  the  sovereign,  and  at  the  same  time  one  of 
the  foremost  prelates  of  the  Church,  possessing 
great  wealth,  which  he  used  with  princely  and 
episcopal  munificence,  he  exercised  a  very  powerful 
influence,  and  that  influence  was  exercised  in  the 
direction  of  ecclesiastical  refoi-m. 

The  most  important  and  lasting  of  his  reforms 
was  the  organization  of  the  clergy  of  his  cathedral 
into  a  community  living  under  a  religious  rule. 
The  aim  of  the  statesman-bishop  was  to  secure 
better  discipline  of  the  clergy  of  the  cathedral.  To 
this  end  he  gathered  them  into  a  clergy-house 
(moTiasteriurn),  and  required  them  to  live  a  common 
*  Smith's  *'  Dictionary  of  Christian  Biography." 


BONIFACE.  195 


life,  under  a  rule.  The  idea  of  the  clergy  of  a  cathe- 
dral living  thus  together  a  common  life,  together 
with  their  bishop,  dates  back  to  the  time  of  St. 
Augustine,  and  had  never  been  lost  sight  of  What 
Chrodegang  did  was  to  revive  this  mode  of  life,  and 
to  adapt  the  rule  of  St.  Benedict,  which  was  being 
pressed  upon  all  the  monasteries,  to  the  circum- 
stances of  the  body  of  secular  clergy  forming  the 
staff  of  a  cathedral.  In  the  cathedral  monasterium 
the  bishop  takes  the  place  of  the  abbot,  the  arch- 
deacon of  the  prior.  The  clergy  are  called  Canonici, 
instead  of  Monachi.  They  eat  in  a  common  re- 
fectory, they  sleep  in  a  common  dormitory,  and 
observe  the  hours  of  prayer.  But  they  do  not 
vow  poverty  or  obedience  ;  and  in  the  refectory 
they  are  not  all  seated  together  as  equals,  but  at 
seven  different  tables  according  to  their  clerical 
order — the  first  table  for  the  bishop,  archdeacon, 
and  guests,  the  second  for  priests,  and  the 
others  in  the  descending  scale  of  the  ecclesiastical 
hierarchy. 

The  rule  thus  established  by  Chrodegang  for  his 
own  cathedral  was  introduced  into  others ;  it  was 
adopted  at  the  Council  of  Aachen  in  a.d.  716,  and 
made  obligatory  upon  all  the  cathedral  bodies  of 
the  whole  of  the  wide  dominions  of  Charlemasfne  : 
and  was  the  basis  of  the  constitutions  of  all 
the  cathedral  bodies  of  (continental)  mediaeval 
Europe. 

Chrodegang  also  took  steps  to  improve  the  disci- 
pline of  the  rest  of  the  clergy,  and  promoted  to  that 


196  CHARLEMAGNE. 


end  the  holding  of  annual  synods.  He  sought  also 
to  control  the  extravagances  and  abuses  of  the 
numerous  solitaries  by  requiring  them  to  live  either 
as  cloistered  monks,  or  under  the  bishop  in  "  canon- 
ical order." 


(    197    ) 


CHAPTER  XIII. 

RELATIONS    BETWEEN   THE    MAYORS   OF  THE   PALACE 
AND   ROME. 

The  barbarian  occupation  of  Italy— The  last  emperors — Count 
Ricimer— CountOdoacer — Deposes  A ugustulus — Extinguishes 
the  Western  Empire,  and  reigns  as  patrician — Theodoric, 
King  of  the  Goths — His  widow,  Amalasuntha,  marries  Theo- 
datus — Justinian's  ambition — Wars  of  Belisarius^Invasion  of 
the  Lombards — Foundation  of  their  kingdom  in  North  Italy 
— History  of  Rome  during  this  period — Rome  appeals  to 
Charles  Martel  for  aid  against  the  Lombards. 

In  Gaul,  Spain,  and  Africa,  the  barbarians  seized 
portions  of  the  empire  as  invaders,  and  held  pos- 
session by  right  of  conquest ;  in  Italy  the  barbarians 
themselves  composed  the  armies  of  the  empire, 
and  thus  were  able  to  make  themselves  masters  of 
its  fortunes ;  and  they  exercised  virtual  rule  by 
nominating  the  emperor  and  controlling  his  ad- 
ministration. 

In  the  twenty  years  which  succeeded  the  death  of 
Valentinian,  the  last  of  the  family  of  the  gi-eat  Theo- 
dosius,  nine   emperors  had  successively  worn  the 


198  CHARLEMAGNE. 


purple.  During  the  greater  part  of  this  period,  Count 
Rieimer,  the  commander  of  the  barbarian  troops 
Avhich  formed  the  military  defence  of  Italy,  stood 
beside  the  throne  making  and  unmaking  emperors 
and  controlling  their  power.  In  vain  Majorian, 
with  abilities  and  virtues  worthy ]of  the  best  days  of 
Rome,  strove  to  restore  the  fortunes  of  the  empire ; 
in  vain  Anthemius  endeavoured  to  maintain  the 
dignity  of  the  purple ;  the  attempt  to  make  them- 
selves independent  of  Rieimer  cost  them  their  lives. 
When  Rieimer  died,  Orestes,  the  next  commander  of 
the  armies,  being  a  Roman,  placed  his  son  Augus- 
tulus  upon  the  throne.  The  troops  demanded  that  a 
third  of  the  lands  of  Italy  should  be  allotted  among 
them,  as  landed  settlements  had  been  allotted  to 
their  barbarian  kindred  in  other  parts  of  the  empire. 
Orestes  was  too  much  a  Roman  to  concede  this 
demand,  and  a  mutiny  of  the  discontented  troops 
put  into  the  hands  of  Odoacer  the  command  of  the 
armies  and  the  fortunes  of  Italy. 

Odoacer  felt  himself  strong  enough  to  depose 
Augustulus,  and  secure  enough  to  allow  the  deposed 
emperor  to  live  in  luxurious  retirement,  while  he 
assumed  openly  to  himself  the  government  of  Italy. 
The  transaction  was  a  very  remarkable  one,  and 
had  an  important  bearing  upon  tlie  subsequent 
revival  of  the  Imperial  title  by  Charlemagne.  The 
barbarian  who  thus  thrust  the  last  of  the  line  of 
the  Western  emperors  from  his  throne,  did  not  pre- 
tend to  take  upon  himself  the  august  Imperial 
dignity  and  its  great  political   claims.      He  con- 


SUPPRESSION  OP  THE  WESTERN  EMPIRE.      199 

tented  himself  with  assuming  in  Italy  the  same 
position  which  other  barbarian  kings  had  assumed 
in  other  parts  of  the  empire.  But  the  whole  poli- 
tical situation  as  it  existed  throughout  the  West  was 
based  upon  the  theory  of  the  Imperial  constitution. 
The  barbarian  kings  were  kings  of  their  own  nations, 
but  they  ruled  their  Latin  subjects  by  the  Imperial 
law  under  the  decent  pretext  of  being  the  authorized 
delegates  of  the  Imperial  authority,  and  often  under 
the  gi'and  names  of  consul  or  patrician. 

Odoacer  had  the  political  sagacity  to  perceive  that 
this  Imperial  theory  would  serve  its  purpose  quite 
as  well,  and  that  the  theory  would  correspond  more 
accurately  with  the  facts,  if  it  were  transferred  to 
the  court  of  Constantinople  as  its  centre.  Accord- 
ingly, the  unfortunate  young  emperor  was  required 
to  resign  his  Imperium  into  the  hands  of  the  senate, 
and  the  senate  was  required  to  abdicate  its  right  to 
elect  a  successor.  They  sent  an  embassy  to  convey 
the  Imperial  ornaments  to  Constantinople,  and  at 
the  same  time,  in  an  epistle  addressed  to  the  Emperor 
Zeno,  they  solemnly  "  disclaim  the  necessity,  or  even 
the  wish,  of  continuing  any  longer  the  Imperial 
succession  in  Italy ;  since  in  their  opinion  the 
majesty  of  a  sole  monarch  is  sufficient  to  pervade 
and  protect  at  the  same  time  both  the  East  and  the 
West.  In  their  own  name,  and  in  the  name  of  the 
people,  they  consent  that  the  seat  of  universal 
empire  shall  be  transferred  from  Rome  to  Constan- 
tinople. .  .  .  The  republic  might  safely  confide  in 
the  civil  and  military  virtues  of  Odoacer,  and  they 


200  CHARLEMAGNE. 


humbly  request  that  the  emperor  would  invest  him 
with  the  title  of  Patrician,  and  the  administration 
of  the  diocese  of  Italy."  They  erected  statues  of 
Zeno  in  the  public  places  of  Rome,  in  acknowledg- 
ment of  his  sovereignty.  The  patrician  exercised 
his  power  with  moderation.  The  Latin  population 
was  still  governed  by  the  Imperial  laws,  and  the 
civil  administration  was  still  conducted  accordinjr  to 
ancient  precedents  by  the  pretorian  prefect  and  his 
subordinate  officers.  The  Emperor  of  the  East  was 
at  first  indignant  at  the  suppression  of  the  empire 
of  the  West ;  but  he  accepted  the  situation,  and 
prudently  kept  ahve  the  Imperial  forms  and  claims 
in  the  West  in  view  of  the  possible  changes  of  the 
future. 

The  power  of  Odoacer  did  not  last  long. 

Theodoric,  heir  of  the  royal  race  of  the  Ostrogoths, 
first  a  hostage  in  the  court  of  Constantinople,  then 
its  ally,  undertook,  with  the  connivance  of  the 
emperor,  the  conquest  of  Odoacer.  After  a  long 
and  arduous  and  desolating  war,  the  Ostrogothic 
invaders  efiected  the  conquest  they  had  undertaken. 
Rome  accepted  Theodoric  as  a  dehverer.  Odoacer 
fled  to  Ravenna,  whose  strength  enabled  him  to 
sustain  there  a  three  years'  siege,  and  then  to  secure 
the  terms  of  a  divided  sovereignty,  which  in  a  very 
few  days  was  terminated  by  his  assassination. 

Theodoric  played  in  Italy  the  same  pait  which 
we  have  seen  Clovis  play  in  Aquitaine.  He  pre- 
sented himself  and   was   accepted    by   the   Latin 


THEODORIC  THE  GREAT.  201 

population  as  a  deliverer ;  he  replaced  Odoacer  and 
his  followers  in  the  third  of  the  lands  of  Italy  which 
they  had  exacted. 

During  a  long  reign  of  thirty-three  years  he 
restrained  his  Goths  from  oppression,  and  sought  to 
promote  theii'  progress  in  civilization,  while  retain- 
ing their  ancient  spirit  and  their  warlike  character ; 
he  ruled  the  subject  population  with  justice  and 
moderation.  The  names  of  Cassiodorus,  Boethius, 
Symmachus,  who  were  his  ministers,  are  enough  to 
remind  us  that  though  Theodoric  the  Goth  ruled 
in  Ravenna,  Italy  had  not  ceased  to  be  Roman. 
Under  his  firm  and  just  rule  Italy  enjoyed  a  season 
of  peace  and  general  prosperity. 

On  his  death  (a.d.  526),  Theodoric  left  the  govern- 
ment of  Italy  to  his  grandson  Athalaric,  under  the 
guardianship  of  his  widow,  the  young,  beautiful, 
accomplished,  and  able  Amalasuntha ;  and  on  the 
young  king's  death  the  queen  sought,  by  giving  her 
hand  and  the  title  of  king  to  her  cousin  Theodatus, 
to  retain  the  substance  of  power  in  her  own  hands. 
But  the  ungrateful  and  unworthy  prince  allowed  him- 
self to  be  put  at  the  head  of  a  faction  hostile  to  the 
queen,  which  imprisoned  and  shortly  murdered  her. 

Justinian  had  succeeded  to  the  throne  of  the 
East  (a.d.  527),  and  had  conceived  the  great  design 
of  recovering  the  severed  portions  of  the  Western 
empire  and  annexing  them  to  the  empire  of  the 
East,  and  thus  restoring  once  more  the  empire  of 
Constantine  in  the  power  and  grandeur  of  its  unity. 
The  genius  of  a  great  general  made  the  grand  con- 


202  CHARLEMAGNE, 


eeption  of  the  emperor  possible.  Belisarius  first 
defeated  the  Vandals  in  Africa ;  was  welcomed  as  a 
deliverer  by  the  long  and  cruelly  oppressed  provin- 
cials; and  united  to  the  Eastern  empire  the  provinces 
which  had  been  the  most  important  of  the  Western. 
Justinian  next  took  advantage  of  the  dissensions 
among  the  Goths.  Belisarius  landed  in  Italy. 
Rome  opened  its  gates  to  him.  The  Goths  collected 
their  forces,  and  wasted  them  before  its  walls  in  a 
twelvemonths'  siege.  At  length  the  Goths  were 
worsted ;  Ravenna  surrendered,  and  Italy  became  a 
province  of  the  Eastern  empire.  The  successes  of 
Belisarius  had  excited  jealousy ;  he  was  recalled, 
and  Italy  was  placed  under  the  wise  and  able  rule 
of  the  Exarch  Narses.  The  successors  of  Genseric 
and  of  Theodoric  were  both  sent  captives  to  Con- 
stantinople, where  the  generosity  of  the  emperor 
accorded  to  them  the  title  of  Patrician,  and  assigned 
them  a  princely  maintenance.  Both  parties,  we  have 
already  had  occasion  to  say,  sought  aid  from  the 
Franks,  who,  taking  advantage  of  the  opportunity, 
invaded  the  plains  of  Italy  under  Theodebert  (a.d. 
539),  fought  impai-tially  against  both  Goths  and 
Romans,  ravaged  the  country,  and  plundered  the 
towns  of  North  Italy,  left  thousands  of  their  num- 
ber behind  dead  of  famine  and  disease,  while  the 
rest  recrossed  the  Alps  in  safety  with  theii-  booty. 

Italy  had  been  reunited  to  the  empire  only  six- 
teen years  when  Alboin  and  his  Langobards,  with  a 
mixed  host  of  barbarian  allies,  poured  forth  from 


INVASION   OF  THE  LOMBARDS.  203 

Pannonia  upon  the  plains  of  North  Italy  (a.d.  563). 
The  reputation  of  their  ferocity  went  before  them, 
and  filled  the  land  with  terror.  Those  who  could 
fled,  the  rest  submitted ;  only  Pavia  resisted,  and 
sustained  a  three  years'  siege,  and  when  taken  was 
adopted  by  Alboin  as  his  capital  city. 

But  the  conduct  of  the  invaders  was  that  of  a  pre- 
datory horde  of  mere  barbarians,  delighting  as  much 
in  carnage  and  destruction  as  in  plunder,  rather 
than  that  of  men  who  proposed  to  inhabit  the 
country  they  had  won.  Gregory  the  Great  describes 
in  vivid  language  how  they  depopulated  cities, 
ruined  castles, burnt  churches,  destroyed  monasteries, 
wasted  farms,  showing  no  reverence  for  holy  places 
or  persons,  and  left  behind  them  a  solitude  where 
wild  beasts  roamed  over  fields  once  smiling  with 
plenty,  and  peopled  with  industrious  inhabitants. 

In  truth,  they  were  a  horde  of  barbarians  and  not 
yet  a  nation.  When  Alboin  died,  they  at  once 
broke  up  into  a  number  of  sections,  under  inde- 
pendent leaders — Dukes  of  Friuli,  Bergamo,  Pavia, 
Turin,  in  the  north,  of  Beneventum  and  Spoletum 
in  the  south ;  while  j-oving  bands,  each  under  its 
independent  leader,  wandered  over  Italy,  wasting 
the  country,  now  and  then  sacking  a  town,  and 
carrying  terror  everywhere.  Only  aften  ten  years 
of  this  confusion  did  the  approach  of  Childebert  of 
Austrasia,  who  again  descended  into  Italy,  force 
upon  the  Lombards  the  need  of  uniting  their  arms 
against  the  common  enemy,  under  the  command  of 
Antharus  (a.d  584),  the  son  of  Alboin.     The  duchies 


204  CHARLEMAGNE. 


of  North  Italy  continued  to  be  ruled  by  him  and 
his  successors,  but  the  southern  duchies  of  Bene- 
ventum  and  Spoletum  were  able,  by  the  advantage 
of  their  position,  to  maintain  a  virtual  independence. 

There  remained  to  the  empire  on  the  mainland  of 
Italy  the  impregnable  position  of  Ravenna,  with  a 
territory  round  about  it,  where  the  exarch  con- 
tinued to  represent  the  Imperial  authority ;  Venice, 
protected  by  its  situation ;  Naples,  which  was  popu- 
lous and  strong  enough  to  defend  itself,  and  soon 
independent  enough  to  elect  its  own  dukes;  and, 
lastly,  Rome,  whose  strong  walls  and  large  popu- 
lation, rather  perhaps  than  its  slender  Imperial 
gan-ison,  enabled  it  to  keep  the  barbarians  at  bay. 
No  doubt  these  cities  were  increased  in  power  and 
wealth  by  the  influx  of  many  of  the  noblest  and 
wealthiest  of  the  refugees  from  Lombard  tyranny. 
The  islands  of  Sicily,  Sardinia,  and  Corsica  also, 
which  were  out  of  reach  of  the  Lombards,  retained 
their  allegiance  to  the  empire. 

This  continued  to  be  the  political  division  of  Italy 
for  two  hundred  years.  During  this  period  Rome 
was  isolated  amidst  the  Lombard  monarchy,  which 
constantly  menaced  and  sometimes  assailed  its 
independence.  Neither  the  emperors  nor  their 
representatives,  the  exarchs  of  Ravenna,  were  able 
to  help  it.  The  city  was  thro^vn  upon  its  own 
resources,  both  for  its  internal  government  and  for 
its  defence  against  the  enemy.  The  bishop,  who 
was  by  far  the  most  wealthy,  powerful,  and  influen- 
tial personage  in  it,  naturally  became  its  leader. 


THE   SEE   OF   ROME,  205 

The  description  which  we  have  already  given  *  of 
the  great  cities  of  Gaul,  and  of  the  position  of  the 
bishops  of  its  cities  under  Clovis  and  his  sons,  will 
help  us  to  understand  the  condition  of  Rome  and  the 
position  of  its  bishop.  We  have  seen  how  Tours,  for 
example,  had  been  enriched  by  the  estates  of  several 
wealthy  provincial  families.  But  the  Roman  See 
had  been  enriched  by  the  great  houses  of  Rome 
with  vast  estates  scattered  over  Italy  and  Gaul. 
The  letters  of  Gregory  the  Great  at  this  time 
give  us  a  very  interesting  picture  of  the  possessions 
of  the  see,  and  the  way  in  which  the  able  prelate, 
in  his  capacity  of  a  great  landowner,  looked  sharply 
after  his  agents,  was  a  good  landlord  to  his  tenants, 
and  cared  for  the  temporal  and  spiritual  well-being 
of  the  labourers  on  his  estates.  The  Bishop  of 
Rome  occupied  the  Lateran  Palace  which  Constan- 
tine  had  given  to  the  see,  and  maintained  consider- 
able state ;  the  withdrawal  of  the  government  to 
Milan,  and  afterwards  to  Ravenna,  the  ruin  of 
the  great  families  by  the  successive  sacks  of  Rome, 
had  left  the  bishop  the  most  important  personage 
in  it. 

We  have  seen  that  the  sees  of  the  Gallic  cities 
were  frequently  filled  by  men  of  high  provincial 
birth,  and  who  had  held  gTeat  civil  offices.  So  the 
Roman  See  was  frequently  occupied  by  men  of  the 
great  historic  families,  and  who  had  held  high  office 
in  the  state.  Gregory,  for  example,  was  of  a  noble 
and  wealthy  family,  and  before  he  was  ordained 
•  Pp.  90-93. 


206  CHARLEMAGNE. 


had  held  the  office  of  city  pretor  {praetor  urhanus), 
one  of  the  leading  magistracies  of  the  city. 

The  conspicuous  position  which  the  bishop  held 
as  the  representative  of  the  Respuhlica  (so  they  still 
called  it)  in  its  Christian  aspect,  was  shown  when 
Leo  went  out  at  the  head  of  a  procession  to  treat 
with  Attila  and  induced  the  terrible  Hun  to  accept 
a  ransom  and  spare  the  city ;  and  again  when  the 
same  great  bishop  similarly  went  out  to  meet  Gen- 
seric,  and  obtained  of  the  Vandal  the  promise  that 
the  city  should  not  be  burnt  or  the  captives 
tortured. 

It  is  true  that  these  later  days  of  revolution  had 
been  troublous  times  for  the  see,  and  that  its  pres- 
tige had  suffered  some  diminution.  Theodoric  the 
Goth,  Arian  though  he  was,  had  claimed  the  right, 
which  had  belonged  to  the  emperors,  to  confirm  the 
elections  to  the  see.  In  the  disputed  election  of 
Symmachus  and  Laurence,  he  had  summoned  the 
candidates  before  him  to  Ravenna  and  decided 
between  them  ;  he  had  commanded  John,  with  four 
other  bishops  and  four  senators  (A.D.  525),  to  go  as 
his  ambassadors  to  Constantinople,  to  claim  for  the 
Arians  of  the  empire  the  same  toleration  which  he 
accorded  to  the  Catholics  of  Italy.  King  Theode- 
bert,  in  A.D.  536,  obliged  Agapetus  to  go  as  ambas- 
sador to  Justinian  to  try  to  avert  hostilities.  At  the 
end  of  his  life  he  anticipated  the  choice  of  the 
Romans,  and  nominated  a  bishop  of  Rome  from  his 
palace  in  Ravenna. 

The  Byzantine  emperors  had  still  further  lowered 


THE   SEE   OF  ROME,  207 

the  prestige  of  the  see  of  Rome.  Justinian  exercised 
the  right  of  confirmation  of  elections  to  the  see. 
Belisarius  deposed  Silverius,  and  sent  him  in  chains 
to  Constantinople,  and  nominated  Vigilius  in  his 
stead.  Justinian  summoned  Vigilius  to  court,  and 
put  him  in  prison.  There  are  few  of  the  holders  of 
the  see  whose  reigns  were  more  inglorious  than 
those  of  Vigilius,  Pelagius  I.,  Benedict  I.,  and  Pela- 
gius  II. ;  they  were  nominated  by,  and  obsequiously 
obeyed  the  orders  of,  not  the  emperor,  but  his 
representative,  the  Exarch  of  Ravenna ;  while  the 
bishops  of  Constantinople  assumed  the  tone  of 
premier  bishops  of  the  empire,  and  Justinian  sup- 
ported their  pretensions.*'  The  prestige  of  the  see 
of  Rome  was  further  lessened  by  the  schism  of 
Aquileia  and  other  Italian  provinces,  in  consequence 
of  the  heretical  compliance  of  Vigilius  in  the  con- 
troversy on  the  "  Three  Articles  " — a  schism  which 
lasted  a  century  and  a  half,  during  which  even  the 
nearest  neighbours  of  Rome  refused  intercommunion 
with  her. 

The  policy  of  the  Emperor  Leo  the  Isaurian,  in 
commanding  the  destruction  of  the  sacred  images 
throughout  his  empire,  served  to  alienate  from  the 
empire  the  sympathies  of  the  whole  of  its  Italian 
dependencies,  and  threw  them  into  an  attitude  of 
open  resistance  (a.d.  726-730).     Gregory  replied  to 

*  On  the  same  grounds  on  which  the  see  of  Aries  had  claimed  the 
metropolitan  dignity  in  place  of  Vienne,  that  the  political  change 
which  had  made  Constantinople  the  sole  capital  and  seat  of  the 
Imperial  government  ought  to  be  followed  by  the  transfer  of  the 
ecclesiastical  precedence  to  the  bishop  of  the  Imperial  see. 


208  CHARLEMAGNE. 


the  Imperial  mandate  in  a  letter  of  insolent  defiance : 
"  You  declare,  with  foolish  arrogance,  'I  will 'despatch 
my  orders  to  Rome,  I  will  break  in  pieces  the  image 
of  St.  Peter,  and  Gregory,  like  his  predecessor 
Martin  [who  was  seized  by  the  exarch  (a.d.  653), 
acting  under  the  orders  of  the  Emperor  Constans 
II.,  sent  to  Constantinople,  treated  with  great 
cruelty,  and  died  in  exile],  shall  be  transported  in 
chains  and"  exiled  to  the  foot  of  the  Imperial  throne.' 
Would  to  God  that  I  might  be  permitted  to  tread 
in  the  footsteps  of  the  holy  Martin !  .  .  ,  But  it  is 
our  duty  to  live  for  the  edification  and  support  of 
the  faithful  people,  nor  are  we  reduced  to  risk  our 
safety  on  the  event  of  a  combat.  Incapable  as  you 
are  of  defending  your  Roman  subjects,  the  maritime 
situation  of  the  city  may  perhaps  expose  it  to  your 
depredation ;  but  we  can  remove  to  the  distance  of 
four  and  twenty  stadia,  to  the  first  fortress  of  the 
Lombards,  and  then — you  may  pursue  the  winds." 
Ravenna  and  Venice,  as  well  as  Rome,  broke  out 
into  open  revolt.  A  force  sent  against  Ravenna 
from  Constantinople  was  defeated.  But  on  the 
exhortation  of  the  pope  the  Italians  abstained  from 
separating  themselves  entirely  from  the  empire,  and 
still  allowed  the  exarch  to  reside — a  captive  rather 
than  a  master — within  the  walls  of  Ravenna, 

The  Lombards  did  not  overlook  the  opportunity 
which  the  circumstances  offered  of  attempting  to 
complete  their  Italian  kingdom.  King  Luitprand 
appeared  in  arms  at  the  gates  of  Rome,  but  once  more 
(a.d.  730)  Rome  was  saved  by  the  influence  of  her 


THE  SEE  OF   ROME.  209 

bishop  over  the  impressible  mind  of  an  invader. 
The  king  listened  to  the  voice  of  Gregory  II.,  visited 
the  Church  of  St.  Peter,  and,  after  performing  his 
devotions,  left  armour  and  mantle,  sword  and  crown, 
as  offerings  on  the  Apostle's  tomb,  withdrew  his 
troops,  and  resigned  his  conquests.  Shortly  after  he 
resigned  his  crown,  and  retired  as  a  monk  to  Monte 
Cassino. 

It  was  nine  years  later  that  Gregory  III.  sent  that 
embassy  to  Charles  Martel  (a.d.  739)  of  which  we 
have  already  spoken ;  and  the  Lombards  continuing 
to  harass  the  Roman  territory  and  threaten  the  city, 
the  pope  sent  a  second  and  a  third  appeal  for  help 
in  the  subsequent  years  (a.d.  740-41).  The  mayor 
seems  to  have  entertained  the  appeal  favourably, 
and  to  have  contemplated  some  active  interposition, 
when  the  death  of  the  mayor  and  of  the  pope  in  the 
same  year  (a.d.  741),  and  nearly  at  the  same  time, 
closed  this  phase  of  the  negotiation.  Then,  as  we 
have  already  related,  Pepin,  on  the  resignation  of 
Carloman,  thought  that  the  time  was  ripe  for  putting 
aside  the  deca3'ed  dynasty  and  assuming  to  himself 
and  his  race  the  royal  dignity.  The  new  pope, 
Zacharias,  gave  a  favourable  reply  to  the  question 
referred  to  him  as  to  the  case  of  conscience  involved 
in  the  change  of  dynasty  and  transfer  of  allegiance, 
and  strengthened  the  title  of  the  new  royal  race 
with  all  the  sanctions  of  religion. 

The  time  soon  came  for  the  see  of  Rome  to  claim 
at  the  hands  of  King  Pepin  the  reward  of  the 
service   it  had  rendered  him.     There  was  a  new 


210  CHARLEMAGNE. 


pope,  Stephen,  and  a  new  king  of  the  Lombards, 
Aistulf  (a.d.  750).  The  pope,  by  splendid  presents, 
obtained  of  the  king  a  promise  of  a  forty  years' 
peace,  but  the  treaty  was  almost  immediately 
broken.  The  King  Aistulf  commenced  hostilities 
against  Ravenna,  took  it,  and  finally  extinguished 
the  Imperial  authority  there.  Then  he  proceeded 
to  round  off  the  Lombard  sovereignty,  by  sum- 
moning Rome  to  acknowledge  allegiance  and  pay 
tribute. 

The  Bishop  of  Rome  sent  to  the  emperor  to  ask 
for  aid,  and  at  the  same  time  sent  to  the  king  of 
the  Franks  to  ask  for  his  intervention.  The  court 
of  Constantinople  sent  one  of  its  great  officials, 
John  the  Patrician,  to  make  known  that  the 
emperor  could  send  no  material  succours,  but  to 
call  upon  the  Bishop  of  Rome  to  join  him  in  an 
embassy  to  the  Lombard  king  to  try  what  could  be 
done  by  negotiation.  At  the  same  time  came 
Chrodegang,  the  Chancellor-Bishop  of  Metz,  and 
Duke  Autchardus,  whom  King  Pepin  had  sent  to 
mediate  between  the  Romans  and  the  Lombards. 
All  four  proceeded  on  their  errand  to  Pavia ;  but 
the  Lombard  king  refused  all  concessions.  Then 
the  Bishop  of  Rome  declared  his  intention  to  accom- 
pany the  Frank  ambassadors  back  to  their  master, 
and  Aistulf  did  not  venture  to  use  force  to  prevent 
his  journey. 

Now  for  the  first  time  Charlemagne  appears 
upon  the  stage  of  history.  The  young  prince  was 
but  twelve  years   old   when   the   king   sent  him 


THE  KING  OF  THE  FRANKS  AND  THE  POPE.   211 

to  greet  the  illustrious  visitor,  and  to  act  as 
his  escort  of  honour.  On  his  near  approach, 
the  king  himself,  with  his  queen,  the  younger 
princes,  and  his  court,  in  royal  pomp,  went  out  a 
league  from  his  palace  of  Pontyon-le-Perche  to  meet 
him.  Stephen  and  his  clergy  appeared  in  sack- 
cloth and  ashes  as  mourners  and  suppliants,  and 
throwing  themselves  at  the  king's  feet,  besought 
his  aid  against  the  enemy  of  Rome.  The  king 
received  the  patriarch  of  the  West  with  extraordinary 
honours ;  he  prostrated  himself  in  turn  before  the 
pope ;  and  when  these  greetings  were  over,  and  the 
pope  mounted  his  mule,  the  king  walked  by  his 
side,  holding  his  bridle-rein. 

The  pope's  stay  in  Gaul,  lengthened  by  sickness, 
extended  to  the  summer  of  the  following  year.  He 
took  up  his  residence  in  the  Abbey  of  St.  Denis  at 
Paris,  the  royal  abbey  founded  by  Dagobert,  which, 
enriched  by  the  Carolingian  princes,  and  endowed 
with  special  privileges  by  the  pope,  became,  what 
Westminster  Abbey  in  later  times  was  to  the  Eng- 
lish kings,  the  scene  of  the  coronation  and  sepulture 
of  the  kings  of  France. 

Meantime,  Pepin  sent  ambassadors  to  invite  Ais- 
tulf  to  abandon  his  designs  upon  the  city  and  terri- 
tory of  Rome.  Aistulf  sent  a  remarkable  ambassador 
in  return,  to  endeavour  to  induce  Pepin  to  withdraw 
his  opposition  to  the  natural  development  of  the 
Lombard  kingdom ;  this  was  Carloman,  the  king's 
brother,  who  was  drawn  from  his  retreat  at  Monte 
Cassino — which  lay  within  the  Lombard  dominions 


212  CHARLEMAGNE. 


— and  sent  on  this  political  errand.  It  was  a  fruit- 
less one.  It  was  the  policy  of  the  Franks  to  prevent 
the  aggrandizement  of  the  Lombard  kingdom. 
Pepin  formally  engaged,  in  spite  of  the  opposition  of 
some  of  the  most  powerful  men  of  the  nation,  to 
take  up  arms  if  negotiations  should  fail,  in  order  to 
keep  Rome  from  the  hands  of  the  Lombards.  Carlo- 
man  remained  in  France,  perhaps  to  keep  such  a 
hostaofe  safe  from  the  hands  of  Aistulf,  and  died 
there  in  the  course  of  the  following  year. 

Rome  had  something  to  offer  in  acknowledgment 
of  the  material  aid  thus  promised.  At  a  grand 
ceremonial  in  the  basilica  of  St.  Denis,  the  patri- 
arch of  the  West  solemnly  consecrated  Pepin  with 
holy  oil,  and  with  him  his  wife  Bertrada  as  the 
sharer  of  his  royal  dignity,  and  his  sons  as  the 
legitimate  heirs  of  his  crown  and  kingdom,  and  pro- 
hibited the  nation  of  the  Franks,  on  pain  of  excom- 
munication, from  choosing  a  king  outside  this  royal 
race.  The  consecration  at  Rheims  had  represented 
the  sanction  of  the  Frankish  Church  to  the  change 
of  dynasty,  but  this  solemn  consecration  by  the 
patriarch  of  the  West  gave  the  highest  possible 
religious  prestige  to  the  new  dynasty,  not  only  in  the 
eyes  of  the  Franks,  but  in  those  also  of  the  dependent 
nations,  and  of  all  the  rest  of  Christendom. 

Moreover,  the  Bishop  of  Rome  conferred  at  the 
same  time  on  Pepin  and  on  the  young  princes,  his 
sons,  the  title  of  Patrician  of  the  Romans.  But  the 
significance  of  this  act  is  somewhat  doubtful. 
Patrician  was  an  honorary  title  which  from  the  time 


THE  KING  OF  THE  FRANKS  AND  THE  POPE.   213 

of  Constantine  had  been  bestowed  upon  a  small 
number  of  very  illustrious  persons,  and  which 
elevated  them  to  the  highest  rank  next  to  the 
Imperial  family,  but  it  did  not  necessarily  imply 
any  authority  or  office  :  for  example,  we  have  just 
seen  that  Justinian  sought  to  console  with  this 
illustrious  title  the  two  conquered  princes,  the  last 
Vandal  king  and  the  last  Ostrogothic  king,  after 
they  had  adorned  the  triumph  of  Belisarius. 

How  the  bishops  of  Rome  came  to  offer  the  title 
to  Charles  Martel  and  Pepin  is  not  clear.  We  can 
only  conjecture  that  under  the  rule  of  Theodoric 
the  senate  of  Rome  had,  at  the  king's  desire,  been 
accustomed  to  confer  honorary  titles,  and  that  it  was 
the  senate  which  now,  through  the  Bishop  of  Rome 
acting  with  full  powers  on  behalf  of  the  city,  offered 
the  title  to  the  mayors  of  the  palace  whose  protec- 
tion they  sought.  Probably  its  utmost  political 
siofnificance  was  that  it  recognized  them  as  Romans 
of  the  highest  nominal  rank,  and  as  thereby  bound 
to  be  patrons  and  protectors  of  the  city. 

In  the  spring  Pepin  led  a  considerable  army  into 
Italy,  inflicted  a  total  defeat  in  the  first  battle  at 
Susa,and  marched  forward,  ravaging  the  country  and 
committing  its  strong  places  to  the  flames,  Aistulph 
retired  into  the  strong  city  of  Pavia,  and  sought  for 
peace.  It  was  granted  on  condition  that  he  should 
recognize  the  sovereignty  of  the  Frankish  king  and 
pay  him  an  annual  tribute,  that  he  should  restore 
the  Roman  territories  which  he  had  seized,  and 
abstain  from  hostilities  against  the  republic. 


214  CHARLEMAGNE. 


The  Romans  were  overjoyed  at  their  deliverance, 
but  their  joy  lasted  only  a  short  time.  For  no 
sooner  had  the  Franks  reerossed  the  Alps  than  Ais- 
tulf.  reopened  hostilities — wasted  the  country  up  to 
the  walls  of  Rome,  and  laid  siege  against  the  city 
itself.  The  pope  sent  letters  again,  and  yet  again, 
each  more  urgent  than  the  others.  The  third 
appeal  was,  by  a  very  bold  figure  of  speech,  put  into 
the  mouth  of  St.  Peter,  who  in  person  was  repre- 
sented as  addressing  the  Frank  king,  asking  the 
protection  of  the  see  of  which  he  had  long  been 
esteemed  the  founder  and  patron,  and  promising  in 
return  a  long  and  victorious  life  and  a  place  in  the 
kingdom  of  heaven. 

Pepin  in  the  following  year  returned  to  Italy, 
besieged  Aistulf  in  Pavia,  reduced  him  to  sue  for 
peace,  and  imposed  upon  him  as  a  condition  the 
cession  of  cities  and  territory  which  Pepin  bestowed 
upon  the  Pope  of  Rome.  Two  Imperial  envoys 
who  were  present  urged  their  master's  claim,  that 
the  exarchate  of  Ravenna  should  be  restored  to 
its  former  condition  of  immediate  dependence  upon 
the  Eastern  empire.  But  Pepin  replied  that  he  had 
gone  to  war  for  St.  Peter,  not  for  the  emperor,  and 
added  these  conquests  to  the  possessions  of  the 
Roman  See. 

This  donation  of  Pepin  did  not  at  once  make 
the  pope  an  independent  sovereign.  The  political 
position  was  anomalous  and  complicated.  The  see, 
as  we  have  seen,  had  already  very  large  possessions 
in  Italy,  Sicily,  Gaul,  and  elsewhere ;  Pepin  added 


THE   DONATION   OF   PEPIN.  215 

the  magnificent  endowment  of  these  new  territories. 
The  Bishop  of  Rome  became  the  actual  ruler  of 
these  teiTitories,  under  the  protection  of  the 
Frankish  king ;  but  in  theory  neither  the  Roman 
republic,  nor  the  Bishop  of  Rome  with  respect  to 
these  and  the  other  possessions  of  his  see,  had 
formally  thrown  off  their  political  dependence  on 
the  empire;  and  the  public  acts  continued  to  be 
dated  by  the  years  of  the  emperor's  reign.  The 
process  by  which  the  Bishop  of  Rome  became  an 
independent  temporal  power  was  as  slow  and 
gradual  as  that  by  which  the  mayor  of  the  palace 
became  king  of  the  Franks. 

A  few  sentences  will  suffice  to  conclude  the 
history  of  the  reign  of  Pepin,  and  to  introduce  the 
central  hero  of  our  story. 

The  southern  portion  of  Gaul,  from  the  Pyrenees 
on  the  west  to  the  mouth  of  the  Rhone  on  the  east, 
called  Septimania,  had  for  forty-eight  years  been 
under  the  Mussulman  domination,  when,  in  A.D.  759, 
Pepin,  freed  from  other  wars,  resolved  to  employ 
the  military  force  of  his  kingdom  in  driving  the 
Saracens  entirely  out  of  France.  This  was  success- 
fully accomplished  in  one  campaign.  Then  the 
Frank  king  found  cause  of  quarrel  with  Waifre,  the 
Duke  of  Aquitaine,  resolving  to  reduce  these  fair 
provinces  between  the  Loire  and  the  Garonne  once 
more  to  theii"  former  dependence  on  the  Prankish 
kingdom.  It  cost  nine  years  of  war  to  effect  the 
conquest.     In  the  course  of  it  we  gain  a  clear  view 


216  CHARLEMAGNE. 


of  the  political  dangers  which  surrounded  the  Frank 
sovereignty.  Tassilon,  the  hereditary  Duke  of 
Bavaria,  though  the  nephew  of  Pepin,  was  ready  to 
take  any  opportunity  to  reassert  the  independence 
of  his  country.  Desederius,  or  Didier,  who  had 
succeeded  Aistulf  on  the  throne  of  the  Lombards, 
was  ready  to  ally  himself  with  the  enemies  of  the 
Frank.  The  Greek  emperor  was  induced,  by  the 
offer  of  the  restoration  of  his  Italian  dominion,  to 
promise  the  aid  of  a  fleet,  which  should  first  recover 
the  exarchate  and  then  make  a  descent  upon  Gaul. 
But  all  these  attempted  combinations  came  to  very 
little.  The  desertion  of  the  Bavarian  contingent 
only  gave  a  year's  respite  to  Duke  Waifre.  In  suc- 
cessive years  Aquitaine  was  overrun  by  the  invading 
Franks,  who  treated  the  conquered  country  with  aU 
the  cruelty  of  barbarian  warfare ;  towns  were  burnt, 
people  massacred,  vineyards  torn  up,  the  country 
ravaged.  Waifre,  with  a  few  adherents,  was  hunted 
through  forest  and  mountain,  and  at  length  assas- 
sinated by  his  own  followers.  Tassilon  returned  to 
his  allegiance ;  the  Byzantine  fleet  failed  to-  appear. 
Pepin  died  Sept.  24,  768,  twenty-seven  years  from 
his  succession  to  the  mayoralty,  sixteen  from  his 
accession  to  the  kingdom,  leaving  a  kingdom 
which  extended  from  the  Khine  to  the  Pyrenees, 
from  the  Alps  to  the  ocean. 


(    217    ) 


CHAPTER  XIV. 

CHARLES  AND   CARLOMAN   JOINT-KINGS. 

Birth,  etc.,  of  Charles — Partition  of  the  kingdom  between  Charles 
and  Carloman — War  with  Aquitaine — Alliance  with  the 
Lombards — Letter'of  Pope  Stephen  III. — Charles  marries 
Desiderata — Divorces  her — Death  of  Carloman. 

It  is  a  little  remarkable  that  Eginhard,  the  intimate 
and  secretary  of  Charles,  should  have  to  say  that 
neither  he  himself,  nor  any  one  then  living,  knew 
anything  about  the  birth  of  this  prince,  nor  about 
his  infancy,  nor  even  about  his  youth.  King  Pepin 
had,  indeed,  associated  his  two  sons  with  himself,  at 
his  consecration  by  the  Bishop  of  Rome,  in  the  title 
of  king,  but  he  never  gave  either  of  them  any 
separate  government  or  employment.  They  shared 
with  other  young  nobles  the  instructions  of  Peter 
of  Pisa,  whom  Pepin  retained  at  his  court  for  that 
purpose.  A  phrase  in  a  letter  of  Stephen  seems  to 
imply  that  Pepin  took  the  young  princes  with  him 
in  his  Italian  expeditions ;  and  there  is  reason  to 
believe  that  Charles,  at  least,  accompanied  his 
father  in  the  Aquitanian  war ;  and  by  that  time  he 


218  CHARLEMAGNE. 


was  old  enough  to  profit  by  the  lessons  of  war  on  a 
great  scale  in  which  he  had  the  opportunity  of 
taking  part. 

On  the  death  of  Pepin  a  national  assembly  was 
held  at  St.  Denis  around  his  tomb,  in  which  the 
Franks  recognized  his  two  sons  as  their  kings  "  on 
condition,"  says  Eginhard,  "that  they  made  an 
equal  division  of  the  kingdom,  the  same  as  that 
which  had  existed  in  the  lifetime  of  Pepin  and 
Carloman ;  Charles  taking  the  portion  of  his  father 
Pepin,  and  Carloman  that  of  his  uncle  and  name- 
sake. What  other  division  the  deceased  king  had 
indicated,  or  had  been  otherwise  contemplated,  we 
are  not  told;  but  Carloman  considered  himself 
wronged  by  the  actual  division.  His  adherents 
stimulated  his  resentment  to  the  edge  of  a  civil 
war,  which  was  only  avoided  by  the  patience  of 
Charles.  Recent  French  writers  *  say  that  this 
division  was  not  a  division  of  the  Frank  territory 
into  two  kingdoms,  but  only  of  the  administration 
of  the  undivided  kingdom ;  and  seem  to  establish, 
from  the  dates  of  the  state  documents  which  came 
out  of  the  chancelleries  of  the  two  kings,  that  in 
fact  they  disregarded  the  limits  of  the  ancient  rival 
kingdoms  of  Austrasia,  Neustria,  and  Burgundy; 
that  Charles  took  the  administration  of  the  arc  of 
territory  embracing  Aquitaine,  the  north  of  France, 
and  the  north-east,  while  Carloman  took  the  ad- 

*  Krceber,  "  Partage  du  royaume  des  Francs  entre  Charlemagne 
et  Carloman,"  ap.  Biblioth.  de  I'Ecole  des  Chartres,  IV.  Scrie,  t.  ii. 
p.  741,  quoted  by  Alphonse  Vetault,  "  Charlemagne,"  p.  140. 


CHARLES  AND   CARLOMAN  JOINT-KINGS.        219 

ministration  of  the  centre,  south,  and  south-east. 
Charles  fixed  his  court  at  Noyon,  Carloman  at 
Soissons.  The  elder  prince  was  twenty-six  years 
and  a  half  old,  the  younger  hardly  nineteen.  Both 
were  already  married  to  wives  of  Frank  race ; 
Charles  to  Himiltrude,  Carloman  to  Gerberge. 

The  fii'st  affair  of  moment  which  tried  the  quality 
of  the  young  kings  was  an  uprising  of  the  Aqui- 
tanians,  who  took  advantage  of  the  death  of  their 
conqueror  to  break  his  yoke  off  their  necks.  Hunald, 
the  uncle  of  Waifre,  the  only  survivor  of  the  ancient 
dynasty,  came  out  of  his  cloister  and  raised  the 
standard  of  revolt.  The  Aquitanians  responded  to 
his  summons,  and  the  Frank  ofiicials  seem  to  have 
been  unable  to  make  any  resistance.  The  brother 
kings  raised  troops  and  met  on  the  border  of  Poitou. 
But  then  the  disagreement  between  them  came  to 
an  open  rupture,  and  Carloman  withdrew  with 
his  forces,  leaving  Charles  to  carry  on  the  war 
alone.  At  the  first  encounter  Charles  won  a  victory. 
Hunald  fled  for  refuge  to  his  nephew  Lupus,  the 
Duke  of  Gascony.  The  Aquitanians  submitted. 
Lupus  was  summoned  to  surrender  the  fugitive ; 
and,  having  probably  assured  himself  beforehand 
of  a  favourable  reception,  he  went  in  person,  accom- 
panied by  Hunald,  to  the  camp  of  Charles,  acknow- 
ledged allegiance  to  the  Frank  king,  and  surrendered 
the  refugee,  who  was  allowed  to  retire  to  Rome  and 
re-enter  the  cloister  there.  Charles  built  the  strong 
fortress  of  Fronsac  on  the  banks  of  the  Dordogne, 
and  left  a  strong  garrison  to  secure  the  province. 


220  CHARLEMAGNE. 


We  have  next  to  turn  to  the  side  of  Italy.  The 
queen-mother,  Bertrada,  used  her  influence  to  nego- 
tiate an  alliance  between  the  Teutonic  neighbours, 
the  Frank  and  the  Lombard  kingdoms,  which  she 
proposed  to  cement  by  a  double  alliance  ;  she  offered 
her  daughter  Gisela  to  Adelgis,  the  son  of  Didier, 
and  heir  to  the  Lombard  throne,  and  sought  Desi- 
derata, the  daughter  of  Didier,  for  one  of  the  Frank 
kings. 

It  was  easy  to  foresee  that  the  sequel  of  this 
policy  would  be  that  the  friendly  Frank  would 
allow  the  Lombard  kingdom  to  complete  its  natural 
development  in  the  Italian  peninsula,  at  the  ex- 
pense of  Rome.  The  pope — it  was  now  Stephen 
III. — wrote  to  tlie  Frank  kings  on  the  subject,  a 
letter  which  is  famous  in  history :  "  We  have  been 
filled  with  grief  at  hearing  that  Desiderius,  the  king 
of  the  Lombards,  seeks  to  marry  his  daughter  to 
one  of  you,  which  is  manifestly  a  diabolical  sugges- 
tion. It  would  not  be  a  marriage,  but  a  coupling 
together  the  most  degrading  imaginable.  ...  It 
would  be  the  height  of  madness  if  the  glorious  race 
of  the  Franks,  placed  so  high  above  all  others,  if 
your  gentle  and  noble  dynasty  should  sully  itself — 
which  may  God  forbid — by  contact  with  this  Lom- 
bard race,  perfidious  and  unclean,  unworthy  to  be 
counted  among  nations,  by  which  leprosy  is  spread 
through  the  world.  What  folly  to  suppose  that 
kings  so  illustrious  as  you  could  descend  to  this 
abominable  degradation  !  .  .  .  Besides,  by  the  will 
of  God  and  the  choice  of  your  father  you  have 


CHARLES  AND   CAELOILAN   JOINT-KINGS.        221 

/^already  been  united   in  legitimate   marriage   with 
/  beautiful  spouses  of  your  own  nation  as  becomes 
noble  kings,  and  to  them  you  ought  to  give  your 
affection.     You  have  not  the  right  to  dismiss  them 
in  order  to  maiTy  others.  ...  It  would  be  an  im- 
piety to  add  other  wives  to  those  you  have  already 
I     accepted.     You  cannot  allow  yourselves  in  such  a 
sin — you  who  obey  the  law  of  God,  you  who  punish 
the  misdeeds  of  others.     Leave  it  to  pagans  to  act 
thus,  but  beware  of  imitating  them — you  who  are 
Christians,  you  who  are  of  a  holy  race,  you  whose 
royalty  is  a  priesthood.     Recall  to  mind  the  unction 
with  which  the  hand  of  the  Vicar  of  St.  Peter  sanc- 
1     tified  you.     Recall  to  mind  that  our  predecessor  of 
pious  memory,  the  Lord  Pope  Stephen,  forbad  your 
glorious  father  ever  to  separate  from  the  lady  your 
mother,  and  that  he,  like  a  truly  Christian  king, 
submitted    to   this   wholesome    injunction."     And, 
after  using  every  argument  he  can  think  of,  he  con- 
cludes by  an  appeal  to  superstition :  "  The  blessed 
Peter,  Prince  of  the  Apostles,  Guardian  of  the  keys 
I    of  the  kingdom  of  heaven,  and  invested  with  the 
\   power  of  binding  and  unbinding  in  heaven  and  on 
\  earth,  adjures  your  excellencies  by  the  voice  of  our 
\  Misery,*  and  by  that  of  all  the  bishops,  priests, 
\  clerks,  abbots,  and  religiouses  of  our  holy  Church, 
jtogether  with  that  of  our  nobles,  our  magistrates, 
land  our  whole  Roman  people,  in  the  Name  of  God, 

I  *  The  rhetoric  of  the  age  used  such  epithets — "  your  Holiness," 
[•'  your  Excellence,"  "  our  Humility,"  "  our  Misery."  "  By  the  voice 
/of  our  Misery  "  here  means  simply  "  by  my  voice." 


f 


222  CHARLEMAGNE. 


the  living  and  true,  Judge  of  quick  and  dead,  by 
the  terror  of  the  last  judgment,  by  all  the  Divine 
mysteries,  by  the  sacred  body  of  St.  Peter,  that  you 
do  not  marry,  either  of  you,  the  daughter  of  Desi- 
derius,  king  of  the  Lombards,  and  that  your  noble 
sister  Gisela  be  not  given  to  the  son  of  the  said 
Desiderius. 

"  We  address  to  you  this  letter  of  exhortation, 
bathed  with  our  tears,  after  having  placed  it  upon 
the  altar  of  St.  Peter  and  offered  the  holy  sacrifice 
there.  And  if  either  of  you — which  may  God  forbid 
— shall  have  the  temerity  to  disregard  our  prohibi- 
tion, let  him  know  that  by  the  authority  of  my  Lord 
Peter,  Prince  of  the  Apostles,  he  shall  be  stricken 
with  an  anathema,  rejected  from  the  presence  of 
God,  and  devoted  to  eternal  flames  with  the  demon, 
in  the  midst  of  his  execrable  pomps,  and  in  the 
society  of  the  wicked.  On  the  other  hand,  in 
respecting  and  keeping  our  commands,  the  blessings 
of  God  will  adorn  your  life,  and  you  will  deserve  to 
enjoy  eternal  recompenses  with  all  the  saints  and 
all  the  elect." 

The  Frank  kings  and  their  mother  seem  to  have 
estimated  this  monstrous  medley  of  worldly  policy, 
bad  language,  scolding,  and  blasphemy,  more  justly 
than  we  might  have  expected.  It  did  not  prevent 
them  from  persisting  in  their  design.  Bertrada 
herself  was  the  negotiator  of  her  own  plan.  She 
first  visited  the  court  of  Bavaria  and  confirmed 
Tassilo  in  his  allegiance.  She  went  thence  to 
Pavia,  and  concluded  an   offensive   and   defensive 


CHARLES  AND  CARLOMAN   JOINT-KINGS.       223 

alliance  between  the  Franks  and  Lombards  ;  she 
procured  the  restitution  of  some  of  the  papal  estates 
lying  on  the  Lombard  territory  which  the  king  had 
seized,  and  inserted  a  clause  in  the  treaty  stipu- 
lating for  the  inviolability  of  the  pontifical  territory. 
Then  she  proceeded  to  Rome  itself,  and  possibly 
induced  the  pope  to  withdraw  his  objections  to  the 
alliance.  But  whether  the  pope  did  or  did  not,  the 
plan  went  on.  Charles  repudiated  *  Himiltrude, 
who  had  borne  him  a  son,  Pepin  the  Hunchback, 
and  a  daughter,  Rothrada,  and  married  Desiderata. 
The  other  marriage,  of  Gisela  and  Adelgis,  was  not 
celebrated  at  the  same  time,  and  never  took  place ; 
Gisela  became  a  nun  at  Chelles,  and  in  time  the 
abbess  of  that  convent. 

The  pope,  however,  had  soon  his  turn  of  triumph. 
After  a  very  few  months,  Charles  divorced  Desiderata 
on  the  ground  that  she  was  of  sickly  constitution 
and  incapable  of  bearing  him  children,  and  with  a 
very  short  interval  married  Hildegard.  The  repu- 
diation of  Desiderata  broke  the  alliance  between  the 
Franks  and  Lombards,  and  before  long  a  war  broke 
out  in  which  national  rivalries  were  embittered  by 
private  wi-ongs.  Meantime,  after  about  three  years 
of  kingship,  Carloman  died.     His  wife  fled  with  her 

*  Some  of  the  modem  Roman  writers,  anxious  to  rescue  the 
character  of  "  St.  Charlemagne  "  from  the  charge  of  bigamy,  main- 
tain that  Himiltrude  was  not  his  wife,  only  his  mistress.  One 
suggests  that  Himiltrude  may  have  died  before  his  marriage  to 
Desiderata.  The  history  of  his  subsequent  domestic  life  has  left 
most  historians  no  hesitation  in  supposing  that  Himiltrude  was 
repudiated  to  make  way  for  Desiderata. 


224  CHARLEMAGNE. 


two  infant  children,  and  some  of  the  chief  persons 
of  her  court,  to  take  refuge  with  King  Didier — "  a 
very  useless  precaution,"  Charles  declared,  when  he 
heard  of  it.  No  one  attempted  to  make  any  claim 
on  behalf  of  the  children  of  Carloman;  we  can 
hardly  say  that  they  possessed  any  claim.  Charles 
succeeded  with  universal  assent^  to  the  sole  sove- 
reignty of  the  Franks. 


(  225  ) 


CHAPTER  XV. 

THE  CONQUEST  OF  THE  LOMBARD  KINGDOM. 

Charles's  military  resources — Mode  of  warfare — Intrigues  at  the 
court  of  Pavia — Charles  invades  Lombardy — Dispersion  of 
the  Lombard  forces— Siege  of  Pavia — Romance  description 
of  Charles — He  spends  Easter  at  Rome — Pavia  surrenders- 
Charles  is  crowned  King  of  the  Lombards — Greco-Italian  con- 
spiracy— Campaign  against  Beueventum — Submission  of  the 
'duke— Invasion  of  Bavaria — Surrender  of  the  duke— Incor- 
poration of  Bavaria  into  tlie  Frank  kingdom — Revolt  of  Duke 
of  Beneventum — Campaign  against  him — Conquest  of  Libur- 
nia  from  the  Greeks. 

To  the  conquests  of  the  earlier  Merovingian  kings 
the  mayors  of  the  palace  had  added  nothing.  They 
were  incessantly  at  war,  but  their  wars  were  either 
civil  wars  between  the  great  divisions  of  the  king- 
dotn,  or  defensive  wars  against  the  Frisians  and 
Saxons  in  the  north  and  the  Saracens  in  the  south, 
or  they  were  wars  against  the  dependent  states — 
Aquitaine  on  the  west,  Bavaria  on  the  east — which 
embraced  every  opportunity  to  endeavour  to  regain 
their  national  independence.  With  the  reign  of 
Charlemagne  we  enter  upon  a  new  series  of  wars  of 

Q 


226  CHARLEMAGNE. 


conquest,  which  last  throughout  his  long  reign,  and 
which  extend  the  boundaries  of  the  empire  on  every 
side,  where  they  had  not  already  reached  the  im- 
passable frontier  of  the  sea. 

We  early  recognize  the  advantages  which  enabled 
him  to  pursue  this  gi-eat  career.  On  the  death  of 
Carloman,  he  wielded  the  undivided  power  of  the 
Frankish  kingdom  unembarrassed  by  any  internal 
dissensions.  He  systematically  adopted  the  Im- 
perial policy  of  employing  the  military  strength  of 
a  conquered  territory  in  further  conquests.  He 
possessed  skill  as  an  administrator,  which  made  the 
best  of  the  vast  resources  in  his  power ;  his  military 
genius  made  him  the  great  captain  of  his  age ;  and 
his  immense  physical  and  mental  energy  enabled 
him  to  rush  from  side  to  side  of  Europe,  and  bring 
his  personal  authority  and  genius  to  bear  upon 
several  great  transactions  at  the  same  time.  The 
conquest  of  Italy  and  the  conquest  of  Saxony  are 
going  on  side  by  side,  while  he  is  improving  the 
organization  and  carrying  on  the  whole  administra- 
tion of  a  heterogeneous  empire,  and  he  finds  time 
to  bestow  a  thoughtful  care  on  the  aftairs  of  the 
Church,  and  to  undertake  the  revival  of  learning. 

War  was  not  an  exceptional  incident  in  the  reign  of 
Charles,  and  an  interruption  of  the  life  of  the  times  ; 
it  was  accepted  as  the  normal  condition  of  things. 
The  Frank  freemen  did  not  condescend  to  any  kind 
of  labour ;  they  were  warriors  and  nothing  else,  and 
mustered  round  their  leader's  banner  and  went  out 
to  their  summer  campaign  as  regularly  as  the  serfs 


THE  CONQUEST  OF   THE   LOMBARD   KINGDOM.   227 

on  their  farms  sowed  and  reaped  their  scanty- 
harvests.  This  desultory  mode  of  warfare,  which 
dragged  out  the  great  wars  of  the  period  to  so  great 
a  length,  is  very  clearly  seen  in  the  annals  of 
Charles's  reign  attributed  to  Eginhard.  The  record 
of  nearly  every  year  begins  with  some  such  phrase 
as  "  On  the  first  breath  of  spring,"  or  "  At  the  end 
of  spring,  towards  the  beginning  of  summer,"  or  "As 
soon  as  the  season  appeared  favourable ; "  the  mean- 
ing of  these  phrases  being  explained  in  the  record 
of  the  year  A.D.  782,  "  At  the  beginning  of  summer, 
when  the  abundance  of  forage  allowed  the  army  to 
take  the  field,"  and  again  in  that  of  the  year  a.d. 
798,  "  The  spring  had  come,  but  the  want  of  forage 
prevented  the  army  from  quitting  its  winter  quar- 
ters." So  that  in  the  rude  campaigning  of  those 
days  the  army  could  not  move  till  there  was  herb- 
age enough  for  the  horses  and  draught  oxen,  and 
it  had  to  return  to  quarters  before  the  herbage 
failed,  and  the  winter  rains  flooded  the  rivers  and 
marshes  and  made  the  country  impassable. 

When  the  spring  was  come,  the  king  always  held 
the  gTeat  assembly  of  the  nation  "  with  the  accus- 
tomed solemnities."  It  was  not  only  a  political 
assembly,  to  which  great  questions  of  national 
interest  were  submitted  :  it  was  the  muster  of  the 
fighting  men,  who  marched  straight  from  the 
Champ  de  Mai  to  the  summer  campaign.  When 
winter  approached  the  army  retired,  was  broken  up, 
and  the  levies  returned  to  their  own  homes.  The 
king  went  to  one  or  other  of  his  country  places — to 


22S  CHARLEJIAGNE. 


Heristal,  or  Douzy  (near  Sedan),  or  Quierzy ;  or  to 
one  of  his  towns — to  Worms  or  Aix.  A  council  of 
the  bishops  and  nobles  and  counsellors  was  held  in 
the  autumn  ;  and  we  are  always  told  "  the  king  cele- 
brated the  feast  of  the  nativity  of  the  Lord  and  the 
solemnities  of  Pentecost "  in  coiir  plenihre,  with  royal 
splendour,  and  with  the  quaint  ancestral  customs, 
some  of  which  have  lingered  even  to  our  own  day. 

We  shall  best  consult  the  convenience  of  the 
reader  by  disentangling  the  principal  threads  of  this 
complex  history,  and  presenting  each  series  of 
transactions  in  a  connected  nan-ative. 

Our  attention  must  first  be  given  to  the  affairs 
of  Italy.  The  cordial  alliance  and  understanding 
which  the  queen-mother  Bertrada  had  tried  to 
bring  about  between  the  Frank  and  Lombard  king- 
doms had  failed.  The  policy  of  Charlemagne,  as  the 
patrician  and  protector  of  the  Roman  state  and  the 
papal  possessions  of  the  exarchate  and  Pentapolis, 
and  the  natural  desire  of  Desiderius  to  extend  the 
Lombard  sovereignty  over  the  whole  of  Italy,  put 
them  into  an  attitude  of  political  antagonism  ;  and 
Charlemagne's  repudiation  of  Desiderata  had  added 
the  bitterness  of  personal  wrong  and  insult  to  the 
antagonism  of  political  rivalry.  The  court  of  Pavia 
had  become  the  focus  of  all  the  hatreds  against  the 
Frank,  The  widow  and  children  of  Carloman  had 
fled  thither,  and  the  claims  of  the  two  children  to 
their  father's  inheritance  were  at  once  set  up  by  the 
Lombard  king  as  a  means  of  attack  upon  Charle- 
magne.    Hunald,  the   ex-Duke  of  Aquitaine,  had 


THE  CONQUEST  OF  THE  LOMBARD  KINGDOM.  229 

quitted  his  Roman  cloister  and  taken  refuge  at  the 
court  of  Pavia,  whence  he  sought  to  fan  the  discon- 
tent of  the  Aquitainians.  Desiderius  was  in  com- 
munication with  Tassilo,  the  Duke  of  Bavaria,  who 
was  always  seeking  to  free  his  hereditary  duchy 
from  its  dependence.  On  the  other  hand,  the 
Lombai'd  kinfj  was  assailing^  the  Roman  states  with 
secret  intrigue  and  open  menace.  He  requested  the 
Pope  Adrian  I.  to  give  prestige  to  the  pretensions 
of  the  infant  sons  of  Carloman  by  solemnly  con- 
secrating them  as  kings  of  the  Franks.  When  the 
pope  declined,  he  seized  some  of  the  towns  of  the 
exarchate ;  and  when  the  pope  still  refused  to  lend 
himself  to  the  furtherance  of  the  plans  of  Desiderius, 
the  Lombard  king  marched  on  Rome.  The  Romans 
appealed  to  Charles  for  succour.  Charles  sent  an 
embassy  to  Desiderius  to  negotiate  an  accommoda- 
tion between  him  and  the  Roman  states  ;  but  at  the 
same  time,  foreseeing  the  probable  failure  of  the 
negotiations,  he  collected  his  troops  and  marched 
them  towards  the  Alps. 

The  summer  had  been  spent  in  these  prelimin- 
aries, but  Charles  did  not  hesitate  to  undertake  a 
winter  campaign.  He  divided  his  forces  into  two 
armies.  One,  under  his  immediate  command,  de- 
scended into  Savoy  by  the  pass  of  Mont  Cenis,  the 
route  by  which  he  had  accompanied  his  father's 
Italian  expedition  eighteen  years  before ;  the  other, 
under  the  command  of  his  uncle,  the  Count  Bernard, 
a  natural  son  of  Charles  Martel,  took  the  route  of 
the  Great  St.  Bernard. 


230  CHARLEMAGNE. 


The  Lombard  expected  the  invader  by  the  road 
which  had  been  the  great  high-road  of  Gallic  in- 
vasion from  the  time  of  Constantine,  and  had 
gathered  his  forces  about  Susa,  which  commanded 
the  embouchure  of  the  pass.  Charles  found  his 
way  thus  strongly  barred,  and  instead  of  attacking 
the  barrier  he  pretended  to  negotiate.  Meantime 
Bernard  had  crossed  the  Alps  without  hindrance, 
and  marched  along  the  southern  slopes  in  the 
direction  of  Susa.  The  Lombards  saw  themselves  in 
danger  of  being  taken  between  the  two  armies,  and 
without  risking  a  battle,  broke  up,  the  several  con- 
tingents of  their  army  retreating  at  once  each  to 
its  own  territory.  The  king  retreated  with  all  the 
force  he  could  muster  upon  Pavia,  and  prepared  to 
stand  a  siege. 

The  monk  of  St.  Gall,  to  whom  we  are  indebted 
for  so  many  anecdotes  of  the  reign  of  Charles,  tells 
us  one  of  the  present  crisis : — 

"  On  the  approach  of  the  French  armies  towards 
Pavia,  the  King  Desiderius  and  the  Frank  Duke 
Otker,  who  had  fled  to  his  court  with  the  widow 
and  sons  of  Carloman,  ascended  a  lofty  tower,  from 
which  their  view  extended  over  all  the  plain.  First 
came  the  engines  of  war,  which  Darius  and  Caesar 
would  have  envied.  Desiderius  demanded  of  Otker, 
'  Is  Charles  in  this  gi'eat  crowd  ? '  '  Not  yet,'  the 
duke  replied.  Seeing  next  the  armed  militia  as- 
sembled from  all  parts  of  the  French  Empire,  the 
Lombard  said,  '  Without  doubt  Charles  marches 
triumphing  in  the  midst  of  these  masses.'   '  No,  not 


THE  CONQUEST  OF  THE  LOMBARD  KINGDOM.  231 

yet,'  was  the  reply.     The  king,  much  moved,  mur- 
mured, '  What  can  we  do  if  he  comes  with  forces 
still  more  numerous  than  these  ? '     '  You  will  only 
know  what  Charles  is   when  you   see  him,'  said 
Otker,    '  What  will  happen  to  us  then  ? '   'I  do  not 
know.'     While  they  exchanged  these  remarks  the 
royal    guard,    which    marched    everywhere    with 
Charles,  came  in  sight.      Desiderius  was   amazed. 
'  At  last  here  is  Charles,'  he  said.     '  Not  yet,'  was 
still  the  reply.    Next  defiled  before  them  a  brilliant 
troop  of  bishops  and  abbots,  the  clerks  of  the  chapel 
royal ;  then  the  counts.   Desiderius  could  no  longer 
endure   to  gaze ;   struck  with    fear,  he  said,   '  Let 
us  descend  and  hide  ourselves  in  the  bowels  of  the 
earth,  far  from  the  presence  and  the   anger  of  so 
terrible  a  foe.'      Otker,   trembling  also — he  who 
knew  well  the  power  of  the  redoubtable  Charles, 
and  who  had  lived  at  his  court  in  better  times — 
said, '  When  you  see  the  plain  bristling  with  lances 
as  with  a  harvest,  when  the  darkened  waves  of 
the  Po  and  Ticino,  reflecting  nothing  but  arms  and 
armour,  have  thrown  round  the  ramparts  new  floods 
of  armed  men,  then  you  may  know  that  Charles  is 
near.'     He  had  hardly  uttered  these  words,  when 
suddenly  the  setting  sun  was  hid  behind   a  veil 
of  dark  clouds ;  one  would  have  said  that  a  hurri- 
cane unchained  by  Boreas  obscured  the  light  of  the 
sun.     As  the  king  advanced,  the  glare  of  the  swords 
cast  upon  the  city  a  light  more  sinister  than  night 
itself     Charles  came   into  sight,  a  giant  of  iron. 
On  his  head   a  casque  of  iron,  gauntlets  of  iron 


232  CHARLEMAGNE. 


on  his  hands,  his  breast  and  shoulders  clad  in  a 
cuirass  of  iron,  his  left  hand  brandished  a  lance 
of  iron,  while  his  right  hand  was  laid  on  the 
iron  hilt  of  his  invincible  sword.  His  horse  even 
had  the  colour  and  the  strength  of  iron;  every- 
where the  sun's  rays  were  reflected  back  from 
iron.  From  the  city  rose  a  confused  clamour: 
'  Everywhere  iron !  Alas  !  everywhere  iron!'  '  King,' 
cried  Otker,  '  behold  him  whom  you  have  been 
so  long  looking  for;'  and  as  he  said  these  words 
he  fell  down  insensible."  The  passage  is  too  famous 
to  be  omitted,  and  is  sufficiently  expressive  of  the 
popular  ideas  of  the  vastness  of  the  military 
resources  of  the  King  of  the  Franks,  and  of  the 
terror  of  his  personal  appearance,  to  be  well  worth 
repeating.  But  it  is  hardly  necessary  to  say  that 
the  details  are  due  to  the  vivid  imagination  of  the 
anecdotist,  of  whom  Chateaubriand  says  that  "  the 
monk  of  St.  Gall  is  the  father  of  the  fabulous 
element  relating  to  Charles." 

The  city  was  too  strong  to  be  taken  by  assault ; 
Charles  proceeded  to  reduce  it  by  a  blockade. 
According  to  the  monk  of  St.  Gall,  on  the  very 
first  day  that  he  sat  down  before  the  place,  he  said 
to  the  chiefs  of  his  army,  "  Let  us  begin  by  doing 
something  memorable,  that  they  may  not  accuse 
us  of  passing  the  day  in  idleness.  Let  us  make 
haste  and  construct  here  an  oratory,  so  that  if  they 
do  not  soon  oj^en  the  gates  to  us,  we  may  at  least 
be  able  to  assist  at  the  Divine  service,"  -  Men  were 
at  once  set  to  work,  and  within  a  week  a  basilica 


THE  CONQUEST  OF  THE  LOMBARD  KINGDOM.  233 

had  been  built,  with  its  walls,  roofs,  and  painted 
ceilings,  such  as  one  would  have  said  it  would  have 
taken  a  year  to  build.  At  the  same  time,  Charles 
sent  for  his  wife  Hildegarde  and  his  two  infant 
children  to  join  him. 

When  the  Lombard  army  fled  from  Susa,  Adelgis, 
the  king's  son,  retreated  on  Verona,  carrying  with 
him  the  widow  and  the  two  children  of  Carloman. 
Charles  detached  part  of  his  forces  to  operate 
against  this  city.  On  their  approach  Adelgis  fled, 
and  made  good  his  escape  to  Pisa,  whence  he  em- 
barked for  Constantinople.  Verona  surrendered. 
Gerberge  and  her  children  fell  into  the  hands  of 
the  conqueror,  and  appear  no  more  in  the  page  of 
history.  Very  possibly  the  cloister,  the  refuge 
of  the  dethroned  princes  of  the  period,  received 
them  into  its  friendly  shelter. 

The  blockade  of  Pavia  had  lasted  six  months 
without  adventure.  The  feast  of  Easter  approached. 
Charles  resolved  to  celebrate  it*  in  Rome.  Taking 
with  him  an  entourage  of  nobles  and  ecclesiastics, 
and  an  escort  of  cavalry,  he  traversed  the  plains  of 
Tuscany  by  forced  marches,  and  on  Holy  Saturday 
he  approached  the  Vatican  gate.  The  Romans, 
advised  of  his  approach,  met  him  with  every  de- 
monstration of  honour.  An  escort  met  him  at 
Novi,  thirty  miles  from  the  city.  All  the  cor- 
porations of  the  city  came  out  in  procession  to 
meet  him,  bearing  palms  and  singing  hymns.  The 
clergy  followed  them,  bearing  the  standard  of  the 
cross.     When  he  met  them,  the  emperor  and  his 


234  CHARLEMAGNE. 


train  dismounted  and  entered  the  city  on  foot. 
The  pope,  surrounded  by  the  magnates  of  the  city 
and  the  clergy,  received  him  at  the  entrance  to  the 
basilica  of  St.  Peter.  The  king  and  the  pope  ex- 
changed the  kiss  of  peace,  and  entered  hand  in 
hand  into  the  basilica,  the  clergy  singing,  "  Bene- 
didiis  qui  venit  in  nomiiie  Domini."  After  wor- 
shipping before  the  confession  of  St.  Peter,  the 
procession  resumed  its  way  through  the  city  to 
the  Lateran,  where  the  king  and  pope  lodged  in 
the  palace,  which  Constantine  had  given  as  the 
habitation  of  the  see. 

Soon  after  the  return  of  Charles  to  Pavia,  the 
inhabitants  of  the  city  refused  any  longer  to  endure 
the  miseries  of  the  siege.  Hunald,  the  ex-Duke 
of  Aquitaine,  was  killed  in  a  popular  tumult.  The 
people  opened  negotiations  with  Charles,  who 
granted  generous  conditions  of  surrender.  They 
opened  their  gates  to  the  conqueror,  and  delivered 
Desiderius  and  his  family  into  his  hand.s.  He  sent 
them  into  France,  where  they  passed  the  remainder 
of  their  life  in  the  cloister;  and  Charles  assumed 
the  title  and  duties  of  King  of  the  Lombards 
(A.D.  774). 

It  is  desirable  to  call  special  attention  to  the 
nature  of  this  political  revolution.  In  the  case  of 
all  former  conquests,  the  Franks  had  either  incor- 
porated the  conquered  people,  or  they  had  been 
content  to  reduce  them  to  a  condition  of  depend- 
ence under  their  hereditary  chiefs.  In  this  case 
Charles  left  to  ^the  kingdom  of  the  Lombards  its 


THE  CONQUEST  OF  THE  LOMBAED  KINGDOM.  235 

own  nationality  and  its  separate  autonomy ;  only  as 
the  head  of  its  national  organization  and  govern- 
ment he  had  himself  crowned  with  the  iron  crown 
at  Monza,  as  the  successor  of  Desiderius. 

The  Duke  of  Beneventum,  in  his  distant  duke- 
dom (corresponding  with  the  kingdom  of  Naples), 
assumed  an  attitude  of  independence,  and  (being 
the  son-in-law  of  Desiderius)  affected  to  represent 
the  Lombard  royalty,  and  became  the  rallying- 
point  of  tlie  Lombard  dissatisfaction  with  the 
Frank  sovereignty. 

It  may  be  that  the  insurrection  of  the  Saxons, 
of  which  we  shall  have  to  speak  in  another  chapter, 
prevented  the  immediate  prosecution  of  the  measures 
which  might  have  consolidated  Charles's  sovereignty 
over  the  whole,  at  least,  of  Northern  Italy. 

The  fugitive  prince  Adelgis  was  welcomed  at  the 
court  of  Constantinople,  always  ready  to  intrigue 
for  the  recovery  of  its  lost  Italian  possessions.  The 
Emperor  Leo  bestowed  upon  him  the  name  of 
Theodotus,  and  the  titles  of  Patrician  and  King, 
and  promised  to  aid  him  with  a  fleet  in  the  re- 
covery of  his  father's  kingdom.  At  the  same  time 
a  league  was  entered  into  by  the  Lombard  dukes 
of  Beneventum,  of  Clusium,  of  Spoleto,  and  of 
Friuli,  to  expel  the  Frank  from  Italy.  What  is 
especially  curious  is  that  Leo,  the  Archbishop  of 
Ravenna,  joined  the  league.  The  Bishop  of  Rome 
had  made  him  the  agent  of  his  rule  in  the  exar- 
chate ;  he  assumed  to  exercise  an  independent  rule, 
pretending  that  Charles  had  committed  the  tern- 


236  CHARLEilAGNE. 


poral  rule  of  the  exarchate  of  Ravenna  to  its  arch- 
bishop, in  the  same  way  that  he  had  committed 
the  temporal  rule  of  the  Roman  duchy  to  the  pope. 

Rabigaud,  Duke  of  Friuli,  anticipated  the  plans 
of  the  Lombard  league  by  declaring  himself  sove- 
reign, and  independent  of  the  Frank  king.  Again 
the  energy  of  the  great  monarcli  made  itself  felt. 
On  the  conclusion  of  the  Saxon  campaign,  he 
marched  with  a  body  of  chosen  troops  southward, 
halted  to  celebrate  Christmas  at  Schelestadt,  in 
Alsace,  and  resumed  his  march.  Before  Easter 
Rabigaud  had  been  defeated,  and  had  paid  for  his 
treason  with  his  head  ;  Treviso,  held  by  his  father- 
in-law,  the  Duke  Stablinus,  had  been  besieged  and 
taken ;  and  the  revolt  entirely  crushed.  The  king, 
leaving  to  the  Lombard  dukes  their  titles  and 
authority,  took  the  precaution  to  divide  the  northern 
duchies  into  cantons,  in  each  of  which  he  placed 
a  Frank  count,  who  might  form  a  check  against 
similar  designs  in  the  future.  The  ambitious  Arch- 
bishop of  Ravenna  died  in  the  following  year,  and 
his  plans  of  independence  died  with  him. 

On  the  submission  of  Witikind  and  the  con- 
clusion of  the  Saxon  war,  Charles  was  at  liberty 
to  give  his  attention  again  to  the  affairs  of  Italy, 
and  he  proceeded  to  complete  and  consolidate  his 
conquests  there.  In  the  autumn  of  A.D.  786  he 
crossed  the  Alps,  kept  the  Christmas  festival  at 
Florence,  and  marched  on  to  Rome ;  thence  he 
entered  upon  the  tenitory  of  the  duchy  of  Bene- 
ventum,  and  marched  through  it  without   opposi- 


THE   CONQUEST  OF  THE   LOMBARD   KINGDOM.    237 

tion  to  Capua.  The  duke,  unable  to  resist  the 
forces  which  Charles  brought  against  him,  sent  his 
eldest  son  Romuald,  with  other  ambassadors,  to 
treat  with  him.  But  the  terms  which  they  were 
empowered  to  accept  were  not  those  which  Charles 
had  determined  to  enforce.  He  detained  Romuald 
at  his  camp  while  he  sent  his  own  ambassadors  to 
dictate  conditions.  He  demanded  that  the  duke 
should  recognize  the  direct  and  immediate  sove- 
reignty of  the  king,  should  pay  an  annual  tribute, 
and  should  give  sureties  for  his  future  loyalty ;  and, 
amono:  other  things,  that  he  should  restore  to  the 
Bishop  of  Rome  the  estates  of  the  see  situated 
within  the  limits  of  the  duchy,  whose  revenues  the 
duke  had  seized.  If  these  conditions  were  refused 
Charles  threatened  to  treat  the  duchy  as  a  con- 
quered country,  and  the  duke  as  a  rebellious  vassal. 
The  duke  had  fled  to  the  port  of  Salerno,  ready  to 
follow  his  brother-in-law  Adelgis  to  Constantinople. 
He  accepted  the  conditions,  which  left  him  still 
duke.  And  Charles  returned  to  Rome,  where  he 
celebrated  the  festival  of  Easter  (a.d.  787). 

The  affairs  of  Bavaria  were  connected  with  those 
of  Italy.  Bavaria  was  the  only  one  of  the  German 
conquests  of  the  Frank  community  which  had  been 
left  till  now  to  enjoy  its  autonomy  under  its  here- 
ditary dukes.  The  national  pride  of  the  Bavarians 
was  hurt  by  its  dependence,  and  the  Duke  Tassilo 
had  always  aimed  at  breaking  the  yoke  off  his 
neck.     This  feeling  made  Bavaria  incline  towards 


238  CHARLEMAGNE. 


the  enemies  of  the  Frank  monarchy.  Tassilo  had 
cemented  his  friendship  with  the  Lombard  king- 
dom by  marriage  with  the  daughter  of  Desiderius. 
He  had  been  engaged  in  all  the  intrigues  of  the 
Lombard  question.  When  Charles  had  marched 
against  Beneventum,  it  happened  that  Tassilo  had 
entered  into  hostilities  with  a  Frank  count  of  the 
Tyrol,  on  a  dispute  as  to  their  respective  boundaries. 

When  Charles  returned  to  Rome  at  Easter, 
envoys  from  Tassilo  met  him  there ;  but  their 
explanations  were  not  satisfactory,  and  Charles 
summoned  the  vassal  duke  to  appear  before  him 
at  the  Champ  de  Mai  (a.d.  787)  at  Worms ;  and 
when  he  did  not  appear,  the  king  resolved  to  put 
an  end  to  the  intrigues  of  Bavaria  by  incorporating 
it  into  the  Frank  kingdom. 

Troops  poured  from  all  sides  upon  the  rebel  duchy. 
Pepin  led  an  army  from  Italy  by  the  valley  of 
the  Adige  against  its  southern  frontier.  A  second 
army  of  Thuringians  and  Saxons  marched  upon 
it  from  the  north.  Charles  himself,  at  the  head  of 
the  levies  of  Neustria,  Burgundy,  and  Aquitaine, 
gathering  the  levies  of  Alemannia  as  he  advanced, 
marched  upon  Augsburg,  the  key  of  the  eastern 
frontier. 

Tassilo,  on  his  side,  had  resolved  to  strike  a 
great  blow  for  independence,  and  had  entered  into 
relations  with  the  Huns  and  Slavs.  They  failed 
him  at  the  crisis.  Tassilo  surrendered  to  Charles 
at  his  camp  at  Augsburg ;  was  tried  at  the  Champ 
de  Mai,  at  Ingelheim,  of  the  following  year,  788, 


THE  CONQUEST  OF  THE  LOMBARD  KINGDOM.  239 

and  condemned  for  high  treason.  Charles  spared 
his  life,  but  deposed  him  and  his  family,  one  of 
the  oldest  of  the  German  dynasties,  and  condemned 
them,  the  Duke  Tassilo,  his  duchess  Lindberga 
the  daughter  of  Desiderius,  and  their  eleven 
children,  to  the  cloister. 

Thus  the  last  of  the  free  German  peoples  was 
swallowed  up  into  the  gi'eat  Frank  monarchy.  In 
the  space  of  two  centuries,  since  Clovis,  it  had 
conquered,  denationalized,  absorbed  all  the  peoples 
of  the  great  Teutonic  family — the  Alemanni,  Bur- 
gundians,  Thuringians,  Visigoths  of  Aquitaine, 
Langobards,  Saxons.  And  now  the  same  fate  over- 
took the  barbarians ;  they  were  deprived  of  every 
vestige  of  their  ancient  autonomy ;  their  country 
was,  like  all  the  other  Carolingian  conquests, 
divided  into  counties,  and  reduced  to  the  rank  of 
an  administrative  province  of  the  Frank  kingdom. 

There  remains  yet  a  final  act  in  the  history  of 
the  Lombard  conquest. 

Duke  Arigis,  of  Beneventum,  had  accepted  the 
conditions  which  Charles  had  offered,  only  with  the 
resolution  to  break  them,  and  to  reassert  his  inde- 
pendence at  the  earliest  possible  opportunity.  He 
reopened  negotiations  with  the  Byzantine  court, 
which  readily  listened  to  his  proposals ;  for  the  pro- 
gress of  the  Frank  arms  threatened  the  possessions 
which  the  Greek  empire  still  retained  along  the 
Neapolitan  coast  and  in  the  Calabrias,  dependencies 
of  the  Greek  patriciate  of  Sicily.  Arigis  offered  to 
transfer  his  allegiance  to  the  Byzantine  court,  to 


240  CHARLEMAGNE. 


assume  the  Greek  costume  and  manners,  and  to 
become  a  Greek,  on  condition  that  the  Neapolitan 
territory  should  be  united  with  the  territory  of 
Beneventum,  and  that  the  whole  should  be  placed 
under  his  rule,  with  the  dignity  of  patrician.  The 
Empress  Irene  agreed  to  the  proposal,  and  under- 
took to  send  Adelgis  with  a  military  and  naval  force 
to  co-operate  with  his  brother-in-law  in  the  hostili- 
ties which  must  ensue. 

But  when  the  Greek  envoys  arrived  they  found 
the  Duke  Arigis  dead ;  his  eldest  son  had  already 
preceded  him  by  a  few  days ;  and  Grimoald,  the 
younger  son,  was  a  hostage  in  the  hands  of  Charles. 
The  king  was  warned  by  the  pope  of  the  Greco- 
Lombard  intrigue,  and  advised  not  to  put  Grimoald 
in  a  position  to  assist  in  carrying  out  the  plans 
of  his  family.  But  Charles  had  confidence  in  the 
prudence  and  loyalty  of  the  young  Lombard  prince, 
who  had  lived  at  his  court  long  enough  to  know 
the  power  of  the  Frank  king. 

The  Greek  troops  did  land  under  the  command 
of  Adelgis  and  of  John  the  treasurer,  and  when 
Grimoald  refused  to  join  them  they  invaded  his 
territory.  But  Charles  had  also  raised  troops  in 
Northern  Italy,  which  he  put  under  tlio  orders  of 
one  of  his  captains.  In  a  long-contested  engage- 
ment the  Greeks  were  defeated ;  Adelgis  and  John 
were  among  the  slain,  and  this  victory  crushed  at 
once  the  endeavour  to  re-establish  the  Lombard 
kingdom,  and  the  last  endeavour  of  the  Greek 
empire    to    recover    its    lost    Italian    possessions. 


THE  CONQUEST  OF  THE  LOMBARD  KINGDOM.  241 

Charles  pushed  his  advantages  against  the  empire. 
Already  master  of  Istria,  on  the  eastern  shore  of 
the  Adriatic,  King  Pepin  shortly  after  (a.d.  788) 
wi'ested  Liburnia  from  the  Greeks,  and  added  it 
to  the  Frank-Italian  kingdom.  It  was  a  valuable 
acquisition  on  the  flank  of  the  barbarian  races 
beyond  the  Danube,  with  whom  the  Frank  empire 
was  destined  before  Ions  to  come  into  collision. 


B 


242  CHARLEMAGNE. 


CHAPTER  XVI. 

THE  SAXON  WAR. 

Description  of  Saxony — Campaign  of  a.d.  772 — Destruction  of  tho 
Irminsul — Revolt  of  774,  and  subsequent' campaign — Revolt 
of  776,  and  campaign — The  Champ  de  Mai  held  at  Paderboni 
— Witikind's  raid  into  Francia,  778— Revolt  of  782— Defeat  of 
Frank  troops — Massacre  of  the  revolters — The  great  rebellion 
of  783 — The  Saxons  fight  two  pitclied  battles  and  arc  defeated 
— Charles  completes  their  subjugation  in  a  winter  cami)aign — 
Severe  laws — Submission  and  baptism  of  Witikind. 

All  along  the  eastern  frontier  of  the  Frank 
dominions  lay  the  Saxons ;  a  numerous  people 
spread  over  a  vast  territory,  retaining  still  in  the 
eighth  ^century  the  rude  freedom,  the  barbai'ous 
manners,  the  idolatrous  religion,  and  the  predatory 
habits  of  their  ancestors.  The  Roman  civilization 
had  never  touched  them;  the  Roman  armies  had 
penetrated  their  forests  and  marshes,  only  to  leave 
behind,  in  the  bones  of  the  legions  of  Varus,  a 
monument  to  Arminius  and  the  spirit  of  German 
liberty.  No  great  natural  boundary  separated  the 
Frank  dominions  from  the  country  of  the  Saxons ; 
the  frontier  line  ran  for^the  most  part  through  a 


THE   SAXOX   WAR.  243 

plain  and  open  country ;  only  here  and  there  had 
nature  placed  a  range  of  mountains  or  a  gi'eat  forest 
to  keep  the  hostile  races  apart.  The  result  was 
that  the  civilized  Frank  kingdom  suffered  from  the 
predatory  incursions  of  the  barbarians,  just  as  the 
empire  used  to  do  from  those  of  the  Franks ;  and 
the  marches  of  the  two  countries  were  the  scene  of 
continual  outrage  and  violence. 

Charles  did  not  commence  war  with  the  Saxons,  for 
a  state  of  Avar  between  the  two  peoples  had  existed 
for  centuries.  What  Charles  did  was  no  longer  to 
content  himself  with  a  war  of  defence  and  reprisals, 
but  to  undertake  to  put  an  end  to  these  ceaseless 
hostihties  by  a  war  of  conquest.  It  was  the 
longest,  the  most  bloody,  and  the  most  difficult  of 
all  his  wars.  It  was  carried  on  in  seventeen 
campaigns,  which  extended  over  three  and  thu-ty 
years,  with  equal  loss  on  one  side  and  on  the  other. 
But  its  success  was  perhaps  the  most  valuable  of  all 
Charles's  achievements,  since  it  permanently  rolled 
back  the  pressure  of  the  flood  of  barbarism  and 
heathenism  from  the  civilized  and  Christian  portion 
of  Western  Europe,  and  carried  forward  civilization 
and  Christianity  into  the  heart  of  Eastern  Europe 
as  far  as  the  Elbe. 

We  need  not  give  a  detailed  history  of  the 
Saxon  war;  it  will  be  enough  for  our  purpose  to 
sketch  its  outline  and  to  note  some  of  its  more 
important  features.  The  first  year's  campaign 
(a.d.  772)  offers  some  points  of  special  interest. 
Charles  convoked  the  Champ  de  Mai  at  Worms, 


244  CHARLEMAGNE. 


crossed  the  Rhine  with  his  musters  near  Mayence, 
and  by  rapid  marches  struck  across  the  Saxon 
territory  to  the  basin  of  the  Weser,  aiming  at  the 
very  heart  of  its  national  and  religious  life.  He 
took  the  fortified  position  of  Eresburg  by  assault, 
and  penetrated  to  the  great  religious  sanctuary  in 
which  stood  the  Irminsul,  "  the  pillai-  of  the  world." 
This  Irminsul  was  a  great  pillar ;  before  it  stood  an 
altar  on  which  half  the  captives  taken  in  war  were 
sacrificed  to  Woden;  and  around  it  were  stored 
heaps  of  treasure,  the  accumulated  share  of  the 
spoils  of  war  ofiered  to  the  god.  The  army  spent 
three  days  here,  sharing  the  booty  and  destroying 
the  idol.  It  was  the  height  of  summer ;  the  springs 
and  streams  did  not  supply  sufficient  water,  and  the 
men  were  suffering  from  thirst,  when  at  midday, 
while  eveiy  one  was  sleeping,  according  to  custom,* 
the  dry  bed  of  a  toiTent  which  came  down  from  the 
neighbouring  mountain  was  suddenly  filled  with 
water  sufficient  for  the  wants  of  all  the  army,  who 
naturally  hailed  the  remarkable  occurrence  as  a 
Divine  interposition  on  behalf  of  the  destroyers  of 
the  great  Saxon  idol  and  sanctuary.  It  was,  in  all 
likelihood,  the  intermittent  fountain  of  the  Buller- 
horn,  which  gave  this  seasonable  supply  in  a  manner 
which  might  well  appear  miraculous.  Marching 
still  foi'ward,  the  king  was  met  on  the  banks  of  the 
Weser  by  Saxon  deputies,  who  sought  peace.  He 
gave  them  peace  on  easy  conditions ;  one  of  which 

♦  We  find  elsewhere,  also,  notices  of  this  custom  among  the 
Franks  of  sleeping  in  the  middle  of  the  day. 


THE   SAXON  WAR.  246 

was  that  the  Saxons  should  allow  the  Christian 
missionaries  to  preach  among  them  without  mo- 
lestation, another  that  they  should  give  twelve 
hostages,  whom  Charles  sent  to  monasteries  in 
France  to  be  educated  in  the  Christian  faith.  He 
returned  to  his  own  dominions,  to  pass  the  winter 
at  ThionviUe.  But  it  was  then  that  the  news 
reached  him  from  Italy  which  led  the  king  to 
reassemble  troops  and  undertake  a  winter  cam- 
paign in  Italy,  of  which  we  have  already  spoken. 

The  Saxons  had  no  central  government  with 
which  the  Frank  king  could  deal.  They  were 
divided  into  three  great  confederations — the  tribes 
of  the  western  district,  or  Westphalians,  those  of 
the  eastern  district,  the  Ostphalians,  and  those  of 
the  central  district,  Angarians — and  each  confedera- 
tion was  only  a  loose  alliance  of  independent  tribes. 
The  Frank  historians  accuse  the  Saxons  of  violating 
all  their  treaties ;  but  the  fact  would  seem  to  be 
that  the  treaty  forced  upon  one  portion  of  the 
tribes  was  not  recognized  as  binding  upon  the 
whole ;  and  even  treaties  to  which  a  more  general 
assent  had  been  extorted  by  force  were  not  much 
respected  by  a  race  fiercely  tenacious  of  independ- 
ence, when  an  opportunity  for  revolt  presented 
itself.  The  constant  successes  of  Charles  seem  to 
have  been  so  destitute  of  result  because  the  Saxons 
usually  declined  anything  like  a  general  engage- 
ment, so  that  their  force  could  not  be  broken 
by  two  or  three  great  blows;  they  had  no  great 
towns  whose  possession  might  enable  the  conqueror 


246  CHARLEMAGNE. 


to  dominate  the  country.  The  summer  campaign 
was  little  more  than  a  raid,  now  in  one,  now  in 
another  jjart  of  the  wide  Saxon  territory.  The 
Franks  could  do  little  more  than  bum  the  cabins, 
and  destroy  the  scanty  crops ;  their  gi-eatest  success 
would  be  to  seize  the  cattle,  their  chief  riches.  They 
found  chiefly  the  old  men  and  women  and  children. 
It  was  these,  probably,  who  made  the  treaties,  and 
submitted  to  baptism,  and  gave  the  hostages.  But 
the  fighting  men  retreated  before  them ;  when  driven 
to  their  utmost  boundary,  they  only  had  to  retire 
into  Denmark  imtil  the  enemy  had  withdrawn. 
Witikind  was  the  hero  of  the  Saxon  defence,  con- 
ducted according  to  these  Fabian  tactics. 

In  774,  the  Saxons  having  taken  advantage  of 
Charles's  absence  in  Italy  to  break  into  the  Frank 
teiTitory  and  harry  the  country  of  the  Hessians 
with  fire  and  sword,  Charles  took  the  field  against 
them  in  the  following  spring,  "  with  the  determina- 
tion not  to  lay  down  his  arms  till  he  had  compelled 
them  to  embrace  the  Christian  religion  or  had  ex- 
terminated them."  Priests  and  monks  followed  his 
victorious  armies ;  the  conquered  were  invited  to 
receive  baptism ;  churches  were  built  and  monas- 
teries founded.  The  policy  of  Charles  became  not 
merely  to  conquer  the  Saxons  by  the  sword,  but  to 
conquer  them  morally  by  civilization  and  Chris- 
tianity. 

In  776,  the  Saxons  again  broke  out  into  a  general 
revolt.  While  they  were  besieging  the  fortified 
places  wliich  Charles  had  erected  and  garrisoned 


THE  SAXON   WAR.  247 

in  their  country,  Charles  himself  had  time,  by  one 
of  his  rapid  marches,  to  arrive  from  Lombardy  and 
bring  up  troops.  The  fighting  Saxon  men  seem  to 
have  retreated  or  dispersed  before  him  ;  he  ravaged 
the  country  as  far  as  the  sources  of  the  Lippe, 
where  tlie  elders  of  the  people  again  met  him,  with 
offers  to  submit  to  his  nile  and  to  receive  the 
Christian  faith.  An  immense  crowd  of  Saxons, 
men,  women,  and  children,  were  baptized  in  the 
river,  in  presence  of  the  conquering  troops,  at  the 
hands  of  the  ecclesiastics  who  had  accompanied 
them.  In  the  following  spring  Charles  summoned 
the  Champ  de  Mai  to  meet  on  the  borders  of  the 
Lippe,  at  Paderborn,  and  the  Saxons  were  admitted 
to  it  on  equal  terms  with  the  other  constituent 
peoples  of  the  Frank  monarchy.  Again  a  great 
number  of  Saxons  received  baptism,  and  one  might 
have  thought  that  they  had  definitively  reconciled 
themselves  to  the  progress  of  civilization  and 
Clrristianity,  and  to  incorporation  into  the  great 
monarchy  of  the  West.  But,  the  chronicler  notes, 
Witikind,  the  bold  and  enterprising  patriot  who 
had  instigated  the  late  revolt,  was  absent ;  he  had 
sought  refuge  with  a  band  of  his  most  trusty  com- 
panions in  the  Danish  territory,  where  he  inflamed 
the  minds  of  the  Scandinavian  peoples  against  the 
aggressive  Frank,  and  waited  his  opportunity. 

The  opportunity  came  two  years  after,  when 
Charles  was  engaged  in  war  against  the  Moors  of 
Spain,  and  the  rumour  of  his  defeat  at  Ronce- 
vaux  had  tarnished  the  prestige  of  his  arms,  and 


248  CHAELEMAGNE. 


given  new  hopes  to  his  enemies.  In  the  spring 
of  778,  Witikind  returned  from  the  north ;  his 
band  of  refugees  was  re-enforced  by  Norman 
waiTiors,  and  many  of  the  Saxon  youth  joined 
his  standard.  There  was  no  general  rising  of 
the  Saxons,  and  Witikind  did  not  attempt,  by 
any  regular  operations,  to  drive  out  the  Frank 
garrisons  and  restore  the  country  to  freedom;  he 
waged  a  war  of  revenge.  Breaking  into  the  Frank 
territory,  he  ravaged  the  open  country  up  to  the 
bank  of  the  Rhine,  sparing  neither  age  nor  sex, 
burning  and  destroying  everything — farm  and 
grange,  church  and  monastery — in  a  manner  which 
showed  that  plunder  was  not  his  object  so  much 
as  revenge.  Charles  immediately  sent  the  nearest 
troops  against  them;  but  without  waiting  their 
approach,  the  Saxon  bands  retreated  through  the 
Hessian  country,  putting  everything  to  fire  and 
sword  as  they  retired.  The  monks  of  Fulda 
hastily  retreated  at  their  approach,  carrying  with 
them  as  their  chief  treasure  the  shrine  containing 
the  body  of  Boniface,  their  founder.  But  the  Frank 
troops  came  up  in  time  to  save  Fulda  from  de- 
struction. They  overtook  the  retreating  marauders 
on  the  banks  of  the  Adem,  a  confluent  of  the  Weser, 
and  carried  on  a  flying  engagement  with  them  till 
Witikind  at  last  reached  the  shelter  of  his  forests, 
leaving  the  greater  portion  of  his  partisans  behind 
him  on  the  field.  Next  spring,  Charles  in  person 
took  the  field  with  numerous  troops.  Witikind 
had  assembled  all  the  force  he  could  muster  on  the 


THE   SAXON   WAR.  249 

north  of  the  Lippe,  and  endeavoured  to  arrest  the 
march  of  the  Frank  army.  But  suffering  a  defeat 
here,  the  Saxons  at  once  disbanded,  and  Witikind 
again  retreated  beyond  the  Danish  frontier;  and 
the  country  renewed  its  submission  and  its  oaths 
of  fidelity. 

Again,  in  the  following  spring,  Charles  held  the 
Champ  de  Mai  at  the  source  of  the  Lippe.  Many 
received  baptism,  not  only  Saxons,  but  Frisians 
and  Slavs;  and  the  king  proceeded  to  divide  the 
Saxon  territory  into  bishoprics,  and  to  found 
abbeys,  and  to  appoint  counts  to  the  civil  adminis- 
tration of  the  country.  We  anticipate  a  little  by 
stating  here,  that  within  the  space  of  twenty  years 
(780-802),  the  modest  timber  churches  of  the  first 
missionaries  had  given  place  to  the  cathedral 
churches  of  eight  powerful  sees,  round  each  of 
which  had  grown  up  towns  which  were  the  centres 
of  the  population,  wealth,  and  political  power  of 
the  country  through  all  the  Middle  Ages :  Minden, 
Halberstadt,  Verden,  Bremen,  Munster,  Hildesheim, 
Osnabriick,  Paderborn. 

After  two  years  of  peace,  Charles  again  held  the 
Champ  de  Mai  at  the  source  of  the  Lippe,  in  782  ; 
and  regulated  more  completely  the  civil  organiza- 
tion of  the  Saxon  territory  on  the  same  principle 
as  that  of  the  Franks,  giving  the  actual  adminis- 
tration chiefly  into  the  hands  of  the  principal  Saxon 
families  themselves.  But  hardly  had  he  returned 
into  Austrasia,  than  Witikind  again  gave  the  signal 
for  an  outbreak  of  hostilities.     In  the  resion  be- 


250  CHARLEMAGNE. 


tween  the  Ems  and  the  Elbe,  the  churches  were 
burnt,  the  Christians  scattered,  the  missionaries 
slain  who  had  not  found  safety  in  flight  before  the 
soldiers  actually  appeared  in  the  field.  Some  rash- 
ness on  the  part  of  the  Frank  troops  first  sent  to 
check  the  rising  gave  Witikind  a  victory  at  Sun- 
thai,  which  forms  a  pendant  in  the  north  to  the 
recent  disaster  at  Roncevaux  in  the  south.  Charles 
himself  speedily  appeared  on  the  field  by  forced 
marches,  at  the  head  of  a  great  force ;  but  the 
rebels  were  already  dispersed,  Witikind  again  across 
the  Danish  frontier,  and  the  king  found  nothing 
but  submissive  subjects. 

But  the  anger  of  the  king  was  roused  by  the 
disaster  which  had  befallen  his  arms,  and  he  was 
resolved  upon  the  infliction  of  a  terrible  chastise- 
ment. He  summoned  a  meeting  of  the  Saxon 
administrators  at  Verden,  in  the  midst  of  the 
country  which  the  insurgents  had  filled  with  fire 
and  bloodshed,  accused  them  of  complicity  with 
the  rebels,  or  of  culpable  negligence  in  not  having 
taken  proper  measures  against  them ;  and  he  de- 
manded that  they  should  deliver  to  him  those  who 
had  been  active  in  the  recent  outrages,  as  the  only 
way  of  averting  signal  punishment  from  the  whole 
people.  Those  who  were  compromised  were  seized 
in  their  homes,  or  hunted  down  in  the  woods  in 
which  they  had  sought  refuge,  and  delivered  over 
to  the  Franks,  to  the  number  of  4500  men.  Charles 
condemned  them  all  to  death,  and  in  one  day  they 
were   beheaded,   every   one.      "After   which,"   the 


THE   SAXON   WAR.  251 


annalist  *  calmly  relates,  "  the  king  returned  to 
winter  at  Thionville,  and  there  celebrated,  ac- 
cording to  custom,  the  festivals  of  Christmas  and 
Easter." 

The  horrible  massacre,  instead  of  filling  the  Saxons 
with  terror,  inspired  them  with  rage.  The  whole 
country  broke  out  into  insurrection,  and  hailed 
Witikind  as  the  common  leader.  He  came,  brinoino- 
with  him  Norman  allies ;  and  the  Frisians  at  the 
same  time  broke  into  insurrection,  slew  the  Chris- 
tians and  burnt  the  churches,  and  made  common 
cause  with  their  co-religionists  in  a  gi*eat  endeavour 
to  break  the  yoke  of  the  Frank  dominion  and  the 
Christian  religion  from  off  their  necks. 

In  the  spring  of  783,  while  Charles  was  making 
his  -preparations  for  a  great  campaign,  Hildegarde, 
his  queen,  died  at  Thionville.  But,  after  paying  her 
the  last  honours,  he  at  once  crossed  the  Rhine  with 
the  advanced  guard,  leaving  the  main  body  of  his 
troops  to  follow.  Witikind  had  gathered  all  his 
forces  into  a  strong  position  on  the  heights  of  the 
Osneggberge,  and  there  awaited  the  attack.  It  was 
the  first  time  that  the  Saxons  had  ventured  to  sus- 
tain the  attack  of  the  Frank  armies.  They  fought 
bravely,  but  were  at  length  obliged  to  yield  the 
passage  of  the  mountains,  which  they  did  in  good 
order,  and  without  being  pursued.  A  second  en- 
gagement took  place  on  the  bank  of  the  little  river 
Hase,  in  the  country  of  Osnabriick,  in  which  the 
Saxons  were  defeated  and  retired  in  disorder,  and 
*  Pseudo-Eginhard,  sub.  an.  784. 


252  CHAELEMAGNE. 


Charles  ravaged  the  country  as  far  as  the  Elbe  with 
fire  and  sword.  Retiring  into  winter  quarters,  he 
returned  again  the  following  spring.  He  met  with  no 
opposition,  but  also  with  no  submission ;  the  Saxons 
endured  the  calamities  which  they  could  not  resist 
with  a  stern  resignation,  and  as  soon  as  he  had 
turned  his  back  they  began  to  reassemble  in  arms. 
Charles  at  once  returned  upon  his  steps,  took  up  his 
quarters  at  Eresberg,  and  sent  for  his  new  wife, 
Fastrada,*  and  his  children,  and  for  the  first  time 
since  the  siege  of  Pavia  he  passed  the  winter  in 
camp.  He  organized  a  winter  campaign  to  harass 
the  Saxons  and  reduce  them  to  submission.  When 
spring  came  he  again  held  the  Champ  de  Mai  at 
Paderborn.  He  brought  an  irresistible  force  into  the 
country.  He  issued  an  edict  of  Draconian  severity. 
It  denounced  the  penalty  of  death  against  the 
refusal  of  baptism ;  against  burning  the  bodies  of 
the  dead,  after  the  pagan  custom ;  against  eating 
flesh  in  Lent,  if  this  were  done  in  contempt  of 
Christianity;  against  setting  fire  to  churches,  or 
violently  entering  them,  or  robbing  them ;  against 
the  murder  of  bishops,  priests,  or  deacons  ;  against 
the  ofiering  of  human  sacrifices,  and  against  certain 
barbaric  superstitions.  And  he  specially  provided 
that  in  these  cases  the  substitution  of  a  fine  for  the 
capital  penalty,  which  formed  a  feature  of  all  the 
Teutonic  codes,  should  not  be  allowed.  Parents 
neglecting  to  have  their  children  baptized  within 

♦  He  had  married  her  within  a  few  months  of  the  death  of 
Hildegarde. 


THE  SAXON  WAR.  253 

a  year  of  their  birth  were  punishable  by  a  fine. 
Those  who  continued  to  sacrifice  in  the  groves,  or  to 
do  any  other  act  of  pagan  worship,  were  to  be  fined. 
Thus  the  king  endeavoured  to  compel  the  people  to 
forsake  their  barbarous  customs,  and  to  embrace 
Christianity,  as  the  only  means  of  effectually  taming 
their  wild  spirits. 

Charles  took  another  important  step  towards  the 
attainment  of  his  objects  by  opening  negotiations 
with  Witikind. 

Generous  offers  on  the  part  of  Charlemagne  met 
with  a  generous  response  in  the  heart  of  the  less 
fortunate  warrior.     He  consented  to  abandon  resist- 
ance and  to  embrace  Christianity.     Charles  himself 
took  the  office  of  godfather — a  spiritual  relationship 
which,  according   to   the   sentiment  of  the   times, 
bound  men  in  the  most  sacred  bonds.     What  at 
length  subdued  the  brave  soul  of  the  patriot  who 
for  twelve  years  had  kept  alive  the  war  of  indepen- 
dence against  all  the  power  of  the  most  powerful 
king  of  the  age,  we  are  not  told ;  perhaps  he  saw 
that  the  cause  of  national  independence  was  hope- 
less, and  that  patriotism  itself  demanded  frank  sub- 
mission ;  posterity  has  recognized  that  his  conduct 
was  as  heroic  in  his  submission  and  conversion  as 
in  his  long  and  desperate  resistance ;  and  the  name 
of  Witikind  was  one  of  the  most  popular  in  the 
legends  of  the  Middle  Ages,  and  lived  on  the  tongues 
of  the  people,  together  with  that  of  Charlemagne 
himself 

Thus  in  the  space  of  twenty  years  Charles  had 


254  CHARLV.MAGNE. 


completed  the  political  organization  of  Western 
Christendom.  He  had  united  under  his  sceptre  the 
bulk  of  the  Teutonic  and  of  the  Latin  races.  He 
impressed  upon  this  Western  Christendom  a  certain 
uniformity  of  institutions,  and  a  spirit  of  community 
of  interests^  which  long  sur'.ived  the  territorial  divi- 
sion of  the  great  empire,  which  speedily  ensued. 

Outside  the  Frank  monarchy  were  left  the  Saxon 
tribes  between  the  mouth  of  the  Elbe  and  the  Baltic, 
and  the  kindred  peoples  of  the  Danish  and  Scan- 
dina\dan  peninsulas.  Beyond  the  frontier  lines  of 
the  Upper  Elbe  and  the  Danube  lay  vast  scattered 
tribes  of  Tartar  and  Slav  race,  heathen  and  bar- 
barian, stretching  into  the  unknown  countries 
northward  and  eastward,  whence  Attila  and  his 
hordes  had  issued,  and  whither  they  had  retired 
with  the  plunder  of  the  Roman  world. 


(     255     ) 


CHAPTER  XVII. 

THE    SPANISH   CONQUEST. 

Saracea  envoys  seek  the  assistance  of  Charles  and  offer  him  their 
allegiance — He  marches  into  Spain — Doubtful  successes — 
Retires  to  Aquitaine— Defeat  of  his  rearguard  at  Koncevaux 
— Organization  of  the  kingdoms  of  Aquitaine  and  Italy — 
Alliance  with  Irene. 

At  the  Champ  de  Mai  at  Paderborn,  in  the  spring 
of  A.D.  777,  amidst  the  dukes  and  counts,  the  bishops 
and  abbots,  and  the  freemen  of  aU  the  various  races, 
Teutonic  and  Latin,  which  assembled  at  the  sum- 
mons of  Charles,  there  appeared  some  Moorish 
envoys  from  beyond  the  Pyrenees  who  had  come 
to  offer  homage  and  to  seek  aid  from  the  great 
Frank  king. 

The  emirs  of  the  north  of  Spain  were  seeking  to 
free  themselves  from  the  rule  of  the  caliph  at  Cor- 
dova. Seventeen  years  before,  Soliman-Ibn-el- 
Arabi,  the  Vali  of  Barcelona,  had  declared  his 
independence  of  the  caliph,  and  put  himself  under 
the  protection  of  Pepin.  It  was  the  same  person — 
now  Vali  of  Saragossa — who  again  came,  accom- 


256  CHAELEilAGNE. 


panied  by  the  Valis  of  Pampeluna  and  other  neigh- 
bouring towns,  to  put  the  Spanish  frontier  under 
the  protection  of  Charles ;  seeking  to  play  off  the 
Frank  king  against  the  Mussulman  caliph,  and  to 
maintain  their  own  independence  between  the  two. 
Charles  listened  to  their  proposals,  and  concluded  a 
treaty  with  thenl,  which  had  the  effect  of  extending 
the  boundaries  of  the  Frank  empire  beyond  the 
Pyrenees  as  far  as  the  line  of  the  Ebro.  During 
the  ensuing  months  he  organized  a  great  force, 
drawn  from  all  parts  of  his  dominions,  to  go  and 
take  possession  of  this  new  conquest.  He  himself, 
with  his  family,  took  up  liis  quart^:^  at  the  villa  of 
Cassinogilum  (Chasseneuil),  at  the  confluence  of  the 
Lot  and  the  Garonne,  while  his  contingents  from 
the  borders  of  the  Danube,  and  the  shores  of  the 
German  Ocean,  and  the  plains  of  Upper  Italy,  were 
converging  to  their  rendezvous  in  Aquitaine.  It 
was  here  that  Hildegarde,  the  queen,  gave  birth  to 
twin  sons — Lothaire,  who  died  in  his  cradle,  and 
Clovis,  who  was  destined  one  day  to  be  his  father's 
heir.  Charles  divided  his  forces  into  two  ai'mies ; 
with  one  he  himself  entered  into  the  peninsula 
through  the  gorges  of  the  country  of  the  Vascons, 
the  other  at  the  same  time  crossed  the  mountain 
range  at  its  eastern  extremity.  Neither  aimy 
encountered  any  obstacle.  Chai'les  received  the 
surrender  of  Pampeluna  and  neighbouring  cities, 
Barcelona  and  Girone  opened  their  gates  to  the 
Catalonian  army,  and  the  invading  forces  effected  a 
junction  under  the  waUs  of  Saragossa. 


THE  SPANISH   CONQUEST.  257 

We  have  no  detailed  account  of  what  took  place  ; 
but  it  is  easy  to  see  that  they  who  had  invited  the 
intervention  of  the  Frank  king  soon  repented  of 
their  imprudence.  Charles  had  not  come  to  serve 
the  interests  of  these  disaffected  Mussulmans;  he 
had  taken  the  opportunity  which  they  gave  him 
to  increase  the  security  of  his  own  empire,  by 
getting  the  Spanish  march  into  his  own  possession. 
It  would  seem  that  a  coolness  sprang  up  between 
Charles  and  his  Moorish  allies.  Soliman  would  not 
admit  the  Franks  into  his  city  of  Saragossa.  The 
neighbouring  Christian  kings  of  Navarre  and  the 
Asturias  applied  to  the  Caliph  of  Cordova  for  aid 
against  the  Franks.  The  Vascons  must  have  shown 
some  open  hostility,  since  Charles,  on  his  return, 
dismantled  Pampeluna,  the  capital  of  their  country. 

At  the  end  of  a  few  weeks  only  tins  vast  force 
retm-ned,  without  having  effected  an}'i.hing  which 
seems  worthy  of  so  great  a  display  of  military  power. 
The  hostility  of  his  principal  Moorish  ally;  the 
absence  of  subsistence  for  so  large  a  force  in  a  thinly 
inhabited  mountainous  district;  the  difficulty  of 
transporting  supplies  across  the  mountain  chain 
which  separated  him  from  his  own  resources; — 
these  considerations  may,  perhaps,  explain  the 
speedy  return. 

The  two  armies  united  for  the  retreat  through 
the  west  of  the  Pyrenees,  taking  the  ancient 
Roman  road  from  Astorga  to  Bourdeaux,  through 
the  gorge  of  Roncevaux.  The  main  body  of  the 
army,  under  the  immediate  command  of  the  king, 

s 


258  CHARLEMAGNE. 


traversed  the  mountains  without  encumbrance, 
leaving  a  strong  rear-guard  to  follow  with  the 
baggage. 

But  when  Charles  had  safely  deployed  his 
troops  upon  the  plain  of  Aquitaine,  he  waited  in 
vain  for  the  arrival  of  his  rear-guard.  A  cata- 
strophe, of  which  the  general  rumour  soon  spread 
abroad,  and  of  which  the  details  were  never  known, 
had  swallowed  up  the  whole  body,  to  the  last  man 
of  them,  in  the  gorges  of  the  mountains.  Eginhard 
briefly  sums  up  the  story.  "  The  Gascons,"  he  says, 
"  had  placed  themselves  in  ambush  on  the  crest  of 
the  mountain,  which,  by  the  extent  and  density 
of  its  woods,  concealed  their  ambuscades.  They 
threw  themselves  upon  the  rear  of  the  column, 
hurled  it  back  into  the  depth  of  the  valley,  slew 
all  the  men  to  the  very  last,  pillaged  the  baggage, 
and  favoured  by  the  shadows  of  night,  which 
already  darkened,  scattered  on  all  sides  with  amaz- 
ing rapidity,  and  without  a  possibility  of  following 
upon  their  traces.  The  assailants  had  had  in  this 
engagement  lighter  arms  and  the  advantage  of 
position.  The  weight  of  their  equipment,  and  the 
difficulty  of  the  ground  on  the  other  hand,  put 
the  Franks  entirely  at  a  disadvantage.  There 
perished,  among  others,  Eggihard,  the  seneschal  of 
the  king ;  Anselm,  count  of  the  palace  ;  and  Roland, 
governor  of  the  March  of  Brittany." 

The  frightful  catastrophe,  the  horror  and  mystery 
and  pity  of  it,  seized  upon  the  popular  mind.  The 
imagination  of  some  mediaeval  poet   supplied  the 


THE  SPANISH   CONQUEST.  259 

details  of  the  tragical  combat  of  heroes;  and 
the  '  Chanson  de  Roland '  became  one  of  the  most 
popular  of  the  series  of  legendary  stories  which 
surround  with  a  halo  of  romance  the  real  history 
of  the  greatest  hero  of  the  Middle  Ages. 

Charles  had  begun  to  discover,  that  which 
Diocletian  had  discovered  five  centuries  before,  that 
a  vast  empire,  combining  populations  of  different 
character,  needs  more  than  one  centre  of  adminis- 
tration. The  population  of  Aquitaine  had  remained 
more  Latin  than  the  France  beyond  the  I^oire, 
had  retained  its  autonomy  until  recently,  and  its 
interests  would  be  best  served  by  a  separate  ad- 
ministration. Italy  could  not  advantageously  be 
administered  from  the  Rhine.  The  kincr  resolved 
to  form  Italy  into  one  kingdom  ;  and  the  south- 
west of  France,  from  the  Loire  to  the  Ebro,  into 
another ;  each  with  its  central  government,  and  its 
hierarchy  of  officials.  As  the  representative  of  his 
own  authority,  he  nominated  the  baby  Louis,  at 
three  years  old,  who  by  accident  had  been  born 
on  Aquitanian  soil,  as  King  of  Aquitaine,  with 
the  centre  of  his  government  at  Orleans.  His 
elder  brother  Pepin,  of  five  years  of  age,  he 
nominated  King  of  Lombardy,  with  his  court  at 
Pavia.  A  nearly  contemporary  chronicler  tells  us 
that  the  little  King  of  Aquitaine  was  taken  by  his 
governor,  Arnold,  to  Orleans ;  a  suit  of  arms,  pro- 
portioned to  his  little  limbs,  was  made  for  him ; 
he  was  placed  on  horseback,  and   thus   made  his 


260  CHAELEMAGIsE. 


royal  entry  into  the  capital  of  his  kingdom.*  In 
the  same  year  (781)  the  Empress  Irene  sought  the 
hand  of  Rothrude,  the  eldest  daughter  of  Charles, 
for  her  son,  the  young  Emperor  Constantine  VI., 
Porphyrogenitus,  of  ten  years  of  age.  The  king 
of  the  Franks  consented,  the  young  people  were 
affianced,  and  one  of  the  officials  of  the  Imperial 
household  was  placed  in  attendance  on  the  Frank 
princess,  to  teach  her  the  language  of  the  people 
among  whom  she  was  destined  to  live. 

♦  "Astronom,"  quoted  in  the  "  Vita  Ludovici  Pit "  by  D.  Boiiquct  , 
vi.  88. 


(     261     ) 


CHAPTER  XVIII. 

THE  CHAPTER  OF  MISFORTUNES. 

The  Huns  invade  the  empire,  and  are  defeated — Charles  marches 
against  the  Huns — The  results  of  the  campaign — Conspiracy 
against  Charles — Count  Theodoric  and  his  troops  massacred 
by  the  Saxons  -Revolt  of  Grimoald — The  Saracens  invade 
Aquitaine — Defeated  by  Count  William  of  Toulouse. 

The  Saxon  wars  had  been  long  and  costlj^  but 
they  had  accomplished  their  object.  They  had  not 
only  subjugated  these  warlike  Teutonic  tribes,  and 
included  them  within  the  Frank  kingdom;  they 
had  also  introduced  Christianity  and  civilization 
among  them,  and  had  practically  extended  the 
limits  of  Christendom  to  the  bank  of  the  Elbe. 

But  here  Teutonic  Christendom  found  itself  face 
to  face  with  other  barbarian  races  and  other  forms 
of  heathenism  ;  and  the  struggle  began  anew. 

We  saw,  at  the  end  of  chapter  xv.,  that  Tassilo 
had  excited  the  Huns  and  Slavs  to  hostilities 
against  the  Franks ;  the  fall  of  the  Duke  of  Bavaria 
did  not  lead  these  tribes  to  abandon  the  designs  of 
war  and  plunder  in  which  they  had  been  indulging. 


262  CHARLEMAGNE. 


At  the  same  time  that  the  war  was  going  on 
in  the  territory  of  Beneventum,  which  we  have 
spoken  of  at  p.  239,  these  barbarian  parties  to  the 
great  anti-Frank  alliance  sent  out  two  armies  of 
invasion ;  one  into  the  Lombard  duchy  of  Friuli,  the 
other  into  Bavaria.  The  first  was  successfully 
encountered  by  the  troops  of  King  Pepin,  while 
the  second  was  met  and  defeated  by  two  of  the 
lieutenants  of  Charles,  the  Counts  Grahamn  and 
Odoacer.  A  few  weeks  after,  the  Huns  returned 
with  augmented  forces  into  Bavaria,  and  were  again 
defeated  with  great  slaughter,  and  many  of  the  fugi- 
tives, driven  into  the  Danube,  perished  in  its  waters. 

During  three  following  years,  however,  Charles 
was  preparing  to  break  the  power  of  these  trouble- 
some and  dangerous  neiorhbours  to  his  eastern 
frontiers.  In  the  August  of  791  his  preparations 
were  completed.  He  divided  his  forces  into  two 
armies.  The  Teutonic  troops  were  placed  under 
the  command  of  the  Count  Theodoric  and  the 
Chamberlain  Magenfried ;  Charles  himself  com- 
manded the  levies  of  Fi-ankish  Gaul.  The  former 
army  marched  along  the  left  bank,  the  latter  along 
the  right  bank  of  the  Danube ;  while  a  vast  flotilla 
carried  the  impedimenta  of  the  two  aiTnies,  under  a 
strong  escort.  On  arriving  at  the  point  where  the 
river  Ens  runs  into  the  Danube,  the  armies  halted 
for  three  days,  and  engaged  in  fastings  and  prayer 
for  the  success  of  their  arms.  Then  they  crossed 
the  rivers,  and  entered  into  the  enemy's  territory. 

The    Huns    had    prepared    a   strong    defensive 


THE   CHAPTER  OF  MISFORTUNES.  263 

position  on  the  site  of  the  ancient  Roman  city 
of  Comagene.  But  Charles's  first  attack  forced 
the  position.  The  Huns  fled  without  an  attempt 
to  arrest  his  further  progress,  and  he  ravaged  the 
country  far  and  wide.  But  the  unhealthiness  of 
the  marshy  plains  in  the  autumn  season  produced 
a  disease  among  the  horses,  which  killed  nine  out  of 
ten,  and  caused  great  sickness  among  the  troops;  and 
Charles  repassed  the  Ens  with  as  great  loss  as  if  he 
had  been  retreating  from  an  unsuccessful  campaign. 

Meantime  an  Italian-Frank  army,  under  King 
Pepin,  had  attacked  the  central  stronghold  of 
the  country.  Between  the  Danube  and  the  Theiss 
was  situated  a  vast  entrenched  camp,  called  the 
Ring,  which  was  the  one  city  and  stronghold  of 
the  Huns.  It  was  a  circular  enclosure,  forty  to 
fifty  miles  in  circumference.  It  had  nine  concentric 
lines  of  fortification,  composed  of  earth,  stones,  and 
trunks  of  trees,  piled  up  twenty  feet  high,  with 
a  rude  palisade  of  branches  of  trees.  In  the  inter- 
vals between  these  lines  of  fortification  were 
villages,  and  a  little  rude  cultivation;  and  the 
cattle  and  the  whole  population  could  be  gathered 
behind  these  lines  in  time  of  danger.  In  the  middle 
space  within  the  nine  circles  was  the  rude  palace 
of  the  Chagan,  or  chief,  an  immense  collection  of 
timber  buildings,  within  which  was  treasured  the 
accumulated  spoils  of  the  Roman  provinces  which 
the  ancestors  of  the  Huns  had  ravaged  three 
centuries  ago. 

Pepin  and  his  troops  penetrated  the  outer  forti- 


264}  CHARLEMAGNE. 


tication,  and  sacked  some  of  the  villages  within  it. 
But  the  brave  resistance  of  the  defenders  of  the 
second  circle,  and  the  arrival  of  the  Huns  who  had 
fled  before  Charles  on  hearing  of  the  danger  of 
their  citadel,  compelled  Pepin  to  retreat  without 
further  successes. 

Probably  this  serious  reverse  spread  widely 
among  the  Frankish  peoples  a  feeling  of  discontent 
with  these  endless  wars  which  brought  no  booty; 
this  coincided  with  a  discontent  which  existed 
among  some  of  the  principal  persons  of  the  king- 
dom ;  the  result  of  these  discontents  was  a  palace 
conspiracy,  which  had  one  of  the  sons  of  Charle- 
magne as  its  centre. 

Fastrada  appears  in  the  legend  as  the  evil  genius 
of  Charles,  the  Fredegonda  of  the  Carolingian  story. 
Her  evil  influence,  it  is  said,  urged  the  king  to 
acts  of  injustice  and  tyranny,  which  alienated  the 
affections  of  his  nobles,  and  brought  his  rule  into 
ill  odour  among  the  people.  The  popular  feeling  is 
shown  in  the  legend  which  relates  that  the  evil 
fascination  she  exercised  over  the  strong  mind  of 
the  gi*eat  king  was  due  to  the  magic  spell  of  a 
ring  which  she  wore.  On  her  death  the  ring  came 
into  the  possession  of  a  bishop,  for  whom  Charles  at 
once,  conceived  such  an  admiration,  that  the  bishop 
found  the  emperor  troublesome,  and  cast  the  ring 
into  a  neighbouring  lake  ;  where  it  still  exercised 
its  magic  power  upon  the  afiections  of  the  king, 
who  would  sit  for  horn's  by  the  margin  of  the  lake, 
gazing  upon  its  waters. 


THE   CHAPTER  OF   mSFORTUNES.  265 

We  have  already  had  occasion  to  say  that  before 
Charles  divorced  Himiltrude,  in  order  to  marry 
Desiderata,  he  had  by  her  a  son  named  Pepin. 
This  eldest  son  of  Charles  had  (says  Eginhard),  a 
beautiful  face,  but  a  deformed  body ;  he  was  hump- 
backed. That  the  stalwart  king  passed  over  the 
unhappy  boy,  as  unqualified  for  military  exploits 
or  for  the  cares  of  government,  might  have  been 
borne  with  patience,  but  we  gather  that  Fastrada 
hated  the  youth,  and  drove  him  to  madness  by 
jests  upon  his  deformity. 

The  prince  was  made  the  centre  of  the  discon- 
tents of  the  court.  The  conspirators  were  accus- 
tomed to  assemble  by  night  in  the  church  of  St. 
Peter,  at  Regensburg.  One  night  a  clerk  of  the 
church,  who  had  fallen  asleep  in  it,  waking,  over- 
heard their  plans;  rushed  off  to  the  palace,  with 
difficulty  obtained  audience  of  the  king,  and  made 
him  acquainted  with  the  plot.  In  the  morning 
the  conspirators  were  arrested ;  some  were  decapi- 
tated, others  hanged,  others  exiled ;  the  prince  was 
tonsured,  and  sent  into  a  monastery. 

"  Misfortunes  come  not  single  spies, 
But  in  battalions." 

Treasons,  defections,  revolts,  broke  out  in  all 
parts  of  the  empire.  In  the  spring  of  792,  the 
Count  Theodoric,  marching  with  the  levies  of 
Northern  France  towards  Bavaria,  with  a  view  to 
a  campaign  against  the  Huns,  was  met  on  the 
borders  of  the  Weser  by  considerable  Saxon  levies. 


266  CHARLEMAGNK 


who  had  been  summoned  to  join  his  banner  and 
march  with  him  to  the  campaign.  But  the  Saxons 
surrounded  the  Franks  and  attacked  them  ;  and  the 
experienced  captain,  with  the  greater  part  of  his 
followers,  perished  under  the  weapons  of  the 
traitors. 

Charles  was  obliged  to  suspend  his  intended 
operations  against  the  Huns ;  he  was  obliged  even 
to  postpone  the  punishment  of  this  act  of  treason, 
for  Beneventum  had  broken  into  revolt,  and  aU  his 
disposable  forces  were  needed  to  pacify  Italy. 
Grimoald,  at  first  so  faithful,  had  fallen  into  the 
traditional  policy  of  his  family;  had  mamed  a 
princess  of  the  Byzantine  imperial  family ;  and, 
relying  on  promises  of  support,  had  raised  the 
standard  of  independence.  The  king  at  once  sent 
his  son  Louis,  who  was  with  him  at  Regensburg,  to 
raise  the  military  force  of  the  south,  and  march  to 
the  assistance  of  his  brother,  the  King  of  Italy.  We 
have  no  particulars  of  the  campaign.  Grimoald 
seems  to  have  been  left  unsupported  by  his  allies, 
and  to  have  sued  for  peace,  which  was  granted  on 
easy  terms.  But,  as  the  Frank  army  had  sufiered 
two  years  before  in  Pannonia  from  pestilence,  now  it 
suffered  from  a  great  famine,  which  desolated  Italy 
and  Gaul  in  the  early  part  of  the  year  793. 

Aquitaine,  denuded  of  its  forces,  was  the  scene  of 
a  new  Moorish  invasion.  A  new  caliph,  Hescham, 
had  healed  the  dissensions  which  had  so  long 
enfeebled  the  Moslem  power ;  proclaimed  a  holy 
war,  led  an  immense  force  through  the  passes  of 


THE   CHAPTER   OF  MISFORTUNES.  267 

the  Eastern  Pyrenees,  and  debouched  upon  the 
plains  of  Septimania.  Happily  for  the  Franks,  a 
hero  was  at  hand  worthy  of  the  occasion.  Wilhelm, 
Count  of  Toulouse,  gathered  the  garrisons  and  forces 
of  the  neighbourhood,  and  hastened  at  their  head 
to  check  the  Mussulman  advance.  The  little  army 
took  up  a  position  in  Villedaigne,  at  the  confluence 
of  the  Orbieu  and  the  Aude.  They  were  greatly 
outnumbered  by  their  assailants ;  but,  encouraged 
by  the  heroic  example  of  their  leader,  they  stood 
their  ground  ;  and  though  the  greater  part  of  them 
fell  where  they  stood,  they  did  not  fall  till  they 
had  made  a  terrible  slaughter  of  the  enemy.  Only 
a  handful  of  the  heroic  band,  with  their  leader,  sur- 
vived. But  the  Moors  had  sustained  such  a  check 
that  their  advance  was  definitely  arrested;  they 
retreated  with  an  immense  booty.  The  caliph 
devoted  the  share  of  booty  which  fell  to  him  to  the 
erection  of  a  mosque  at  Cordova ;  and,  perhaps  in 
the  fulfilment  of  the  letter  of  some  vow  to  build  a 
mosque  on  the  land  of  the  Christians,  he  had  sacks 
of  earth  carried  from  the  battle-field  of  Villedaigne, 
on  the  backs  of  his  Aquitanian  captives,  to  form 
the  foundation  of  his  building.  The  mosque  which 
Hescham  thus  built  with  Christian  money,  on 
Christian  soil,  fell  in  turn  into  the  hands  of  the 
Chi'istians,  and  is  now  the  cathedral  of  Cordova. 


268  CHARLEMAGNE. 


CHAPTER  XIX. 

CONCLUSION  OF  THE  WARS  OF  CONQUEST. 

The  second  period  of  the  Saxon  war — Deportation  of  Saxons — 
Planting  of  foreign  colonies  among  them — Second  period  of 
the  Saracen  war — The  definitive  conquest  of  the  Spanisli 
march — Pepin  defeats  the  Huns,  captures  the  "Ring,"  and 
settles  the  country. 

It  was  not  until  the  year  794,  at  the  conclusion 
of  the  Council  of  Frankfort,  that  Charles  was  at 
leisure  to  punish  the  treacherous  massacre  of  Count 
Theodore  and  his  Franks,  of  which  the  Saxons  had 
been  guilty  years  before.  In  the  autumn  of  that 
year  he  entered  into  Saxony  with  two  armies,  one 
commanded  by  himself,  the  other  by  his  son 
Charles.  The  Saxons  had  made  some  defensive 
preparations,  but  found  themselves  so  outnumbered, 
and  probably  so  out-manoeuvred,  that  they  laid 
down  their  arms  without  a  blow. 

In  this  and  two  following  years  Charles  overran 
the  whole  country,  and  subjected  it  to  a  rigorous 
military  occupation ;  but  in  place  of  the .  bloody 
reprisals  in  wliich,  ten  years  before,  he  had  executed 


CONCLUSION   OF  THE   WARS  OF  CONQUEST.     269 

four  thousand  insurgents,  he  contented  himself  now 
with  deporting  vast  numbers  of  the  Saxons — men, 
women  and  children — and  settling  them  in  colonies 
in  various  parts  of  the  middle  and  south  of  Europe. 
At  the  same  time  he  planted  military  colonies  in 
various  places  in  Saxony.  A  revolt  in  the  extreme 
north  was  sternly  repressed.  In  797,  Charles  was 
able  to  relax  the  severity  of  the  capitularies  he  had 
issued  ten  years  before  ;  and  from  this  time  we  may 
regard  the  Saxon  provinces  as  fully  incorporated  in 
the  Frank  dominions.  The  dedication  of  the 
basilica  which  he  had  erected  at  Paderborn,  by  the 
hands  of  the  fugitive  Pope  Leo  III.,  in  the  year 
799,  may  make  a  useful  chronological  point,  and 
may  serve,  moreover,  to  synchronize  the  affairs  of 
Saxony  and  of  Italy,  which  our  plan  has  required 
us  to  pursue  separately. 

In  the  mean  time  the  other  gi-eat  wars  of  Charles 
had,  under  the  able  conduct  of  his  lieutenants,  been 
drawing  towards  a  prosperous  concliLsion ;  viz.  the 
war  against  the  Huns  under  King  Pepin,  and 
the  war  against  the  Saracens  under  King  Louis. 
Of  these  subjects  we  must  now  give  a  rapid 
summary. 

In  the  spring  of  797  Charles  again  saw  a  Saracen 
envoy  at  his  court  at  Aix-la-Chapelle.  Hescham, 
Emir  of  Cordova,  had  died.  There  was  a  disputed 
succession ;  the  whole  politics  of  Spain  were  in  con- 
fusion, and  more  than  one  of  the  contending  parties 
sought  the  aid  of  the  powerful  Frank  king.     He 


270  CHARLEMAGNE. 


embraced  the  opportunity  to  strengthen  his  influence 
south  of  the  Pyrenees.  Charles  sent  his  son  Louis, 
the  young  King  of  Aquitaine,  to  his  own  states  to 
organize  the  subsequent  movements.  The  Count 
William  of  Toulouse,  the  hero  of  Villedaigne,  was 
put  in  command  of  the  troops  of  Aquitaine.  The 
Frank  forces  entered  Spain,  "as  on  the  former  occa- 
sion, by  both  ends  of  the  Pyrenees  ;  the  cities  every- 
where surrendered,  or  an  entrance  was  easily  forced. 
The  valiant  populations  of  Gallicia  and  the  Asturias, 
under  the  leadership  of  King  Alphonso  II.,  allied 
themselves  with  the  Frankish  forces,  and  co-operated 
in  driving  back  the  infidel  enemy.  The  success 
was  definitive,  and  the  line  of  the  Ebro  became  the 
boundaiy  of  the  dominions  of  the  gi-eat  Frank.  A 
year  later,  the  Balearic  Islands  also,  harassed  by 
Saracen  pirates,  put  themselves  under  the  pro- 
tection of  the  Frank  monarchy. 

Among  the  Huns  also  dynastic  disputes  pre- 
pared the  way  for  their  conquest.  At  the  close  of 
an  internal  struggle,  which  had  deprived  both 
factions  of  its  leader,  and  left  the  divided  race  help- 
less against  an  external  foe,  Pepin,  with  his  Italian 
forces,  poured  into  Pannonia  from  the  south-west, 
drove  back  the  wandering  hordes,  attacked  their 
central  fortification,  carried  one  after  another  the 
nine  circles  of  the  Ring,  and  seized  the  immense 
booty  so  long  guarded  there ;  and  the  young  king 
entered  into  Aix  in  a  kind  of  triumph  with. his 
victorious  troops,  his  captives,  and  his  waggon- 
loads  of  booty.     The  capture  of  the  Ring  broke 


CONCLUSION    OF   THE  WARS   OF  CONQUEST.     271 

the  strength  of  the  Huns  of  Pannonia.  The  war 
against  them  lasted,  from  first  to  last,  six  years. 
Many  of  the  Huns  were  slain,  many  retired  from 
the  country  further  eastward;  the  remainder  ac- 
cepted the  religion  and  the  sovereignty  of  the 
Frank.  Churches  and  monasteries  were  planted 
up  and  down  the  country,  the  garrisons  at  once  of 
Christianity  and  civilization. 


272  CHARLEMAGNE. 


CHAPTER  XX. 

CHARLES    EMPEROR. 

Death  of  Pope  Adrian — Election  of  Leo  III. — Charles's  letter  to 
him — Revolt  against  Leo — He  flees  to  Charles — Is  escorted 
back  to  Rome — The  Norman  pirates — Charles  visits  Rome — 
Holds  inquiry  into  accusations  against  the  pope — The  Christ- 
mas of  800  in  St.  Peter's — Coronation  of  Charles  as  emperor — 
Three  different  accounts  of  the  event — Significance  of  the 
event. 

Pope  Adrian  died,  a  little  after  the  reopening  of 
the  Saxon  war,  on  Christmas  Day,  795.  Charles 
sincerely  regretted  him,  and  composed  his  epitaph, 
which  may  still  be  read  on  this  pontiffs  tomb  at 
Rome : — 

"  I,  Charles,  have  written  these  verses,  mourning 
for  a  well-beloved  father.  ...  I  desire  to  write 
upon  his  tomb  our  names  and  titles — Charles  and 
Adrian ;  I  the  king,  thou  the  father.  .  .  .  O  excel- 
lent father,  remember  me,  and  pray  for  me,  that  thy 
son  may  one  day  rejoin  thee  in  the  heavenly  king- 
dom of  Christ." 

Immediately  after  the  burial  of  the  late  pope. 


CHAKLES   EMPEROR.  273 

which,  according  to  the  custom  of  the  time,  took 
place  on  the  next  day,  the  clergy  and  the  chief  men 
of  the  city,  and  the  people,  elected  Leo  III.  to  fill 
the  vacant  see.  The  newly  elected  pope  hastened 
to  send  an  embassy  to  Charles,  excusing  himself  for 
having  accepted  the  impulsive  and  unanimous  elec- 
tion without  waiting  for  his  confirmation.  The 
ambassadors  carried  with  them  the  keys  of  the 
confession  *  of  St.  Peter,  and  the  keys  and  standard 
of  the  city,  and  requested  him  to  send  a  representa- 
tive to  receive  the  oath  of  obedience  and  fidelity  of 
the  Romans.  Charles  selected  Angilbert,  Abbot  of 
St.  Riquiei-,  one  of  the  leading  prelates  of  his  court, 
for  this  honoui-able  mission.  He  sent  to  the  new 
bishop,  as  presents,  some  of  the  spoils  which  had 
been  lately  taken  from  the  Hunnish  citadel,  the 
King;  and  the  distinguished  ambassador  was  the 
bearer  of  a  letter  from  the  King  of  the  Franks  and 
King  of  the  Lombards  and  Patrician  of  Rome,  to  the 
newly  elected  prelate.  In  the  fii'st  place,  he  con- 
firmed the  canonical  election  of  the  clergy  and 
people.  Then  he  entered  into  the  question  of  their 
relations  in  a  manner  which  throws  great  light 
upon  the  way  in  Avhich  Charles  regarded  them. 
"  We  have  directed  Angilbert,"  he  says,  "  to  arrange 
with  you,  in  our  name,  the  measures  which  may 
seem  desirable  to  maintain  the  welfare  of  the  Holy 
Church  of  God,  and  to  confirm  your  authority  and 
our  pati-iciate  :  for  the  agreement  which  I   made 

*  The  crypt  before  the  altar  of  the  basilica  of  St.  Peter,  which 
contained  the  Apostle's  tomb. 

T 


274  CHARLEMAGNE. 


with  the  blessed  predecessor  of  your  Paternity,  I 
desire  to  continue  with  your  Blessedness  in  the  same 
inviolable  bond  of  faith  and  charity.  ...  It  is  our 
task  to  defend  in  all  places,  with  the  help  of  the 
Divine  mercy,  the  Holy  Church  of  Christ,  by  repel- 
ling the  attacks  of  infidels  from  without,  and  by 
defendincf  within  the  Church  the  Catholic  truth :  as 
it  is  your  part,  most  Holy  Father,  to  aid  our  arms, 
by  lifting  up  your  hands,  like  Moses,  to  heaven,  that 
by  your  intercession  God,  our  Guide,  may  every- 
where give  the  victory  to  Christian  people  over  the 
enemies  of  His  Holy  Name,  and  that  our  Lord  Jesus 
Christ  may  be  glorified  throughout  the  imiverse." 
In  the  latter  part  of  the  letter  he  addresses  the  new 
pope  in  a  tone  of  exhortation,  which  again  throws 
a  flood  of  light  upon  the  king's  conception  of  their 
mutual  relations.  He  recommends  to  the  pope  a 
scrupulous  observance  of  the  canons ;  he  exliorts  him 
to  give  in  his  conduct  and  in  his  words  examples  and 
counsels  of  edification — "  that  you  may  make  your 
light  shine  in  the  eyes  of  men ;  that,  finding  your 
works  to  be  good  works,  they  may  glorify  your 
Father  which  is  in  heaven." 

In  a  private  letter  of  instructions  to  his  ambas- 
sador, he  writes  in  the  same  strain :  "  Repeat  to 
him  often  how  i^^  years  he  can  possibly  enjoy  this 
dignity  here,  and  how  durable  the  reward  reserved 
in  eternity  for  those  who  shall  have  well  fulfilled 
his  office.  Persuade  him  to  destroy  the  simoniacal 
heresy  which  in  so  many  places  defiles  the  body  of 
the  Church ;  and  speak  to  him  of  all  those  things 


CHARLES   EMPEKOR.  275 

which  you  will  remember  that  you  and  I  have  so 
often  lamented.  May  the  Lord  guide  and  keep  you; 
may  He  direct  into  all  goodness  the  heart  of  Leo, 
and  dispose  him  to  do  all  which  shall  be  profitable 
to  the  Holy  Church,  and  make  him  a  good  father 
and  intercessor  for  us,  that  Jesus  Christ  may  make 
us  prosper  in  the  execution  of  His  will,  and  guide 
the  remainder  of  our  life  towards  the  eternal  rest. 
May  you  have  a  prosperous  journey,  make  pro- 
gress in  the  truth,  and  return  with  joy,  my  little 
Homer.* 

Two  years  passed  away  after  the  election  of  the 
new  pope,  during  which  Charles  was  occupied  with 
his  wars  in  Saxony,  Pannonia,  and  Spain,  when  an 
event  occurred  which  showed  the  great  ambitions 
and  the  fierce  passions  which  seethed  beneath  the 
decorous  and  religious  exterior  of  the  Roman  court. 
A  conspiracy,  headed  by  two  nephews  of  the  late 
pope,  high  officials  of  the  Roman  Church,  fell  upon 
the  pope  as  he  was  being  carried  through  the 
streets  to  take  part  in  some  customary  ceremony  in 
one  of  its  churches,  attempted  to  put  out  his  eyes 
and  cut  out  his  tongue,  stripped  him  of  his  robes, 
and  cast  him  a  prisoner  into  a  ceU  of  the  monastery 
of  St.  Stephen.  Some  of  his  friends,  however,  made 
their  way  into  the  monastery  and  released  him,  and 
carried  him  to  the  Vatican.  The  Frank  Duke  of 
Spoleto,  on  hearing  the  news,  marched  with  a  small 
force  and  brought  him  safely  out  of  Rome,  and  the 

*  Homer,  as  we  shall  see  (p.  315),  was,  in  the  court  circle,  the 
literary  pseudonym  of  the  Abbot  of  St.  Eiquier. 


276  CHAELEMAGNE. 


dispossessed  prelate  took  his  journey  to  find  Charles 
at  Paderborn. 

The  triumphant  faction  in  Rome  also  sent  envoys 
to  the  king,  accusing  the  deposed  pope  of  crimes, 
and  excusing  his  deposition.  Charles  sent  the  pope 
back  with  a  sufficient  force  to  replace  him  in  his 
see,  and  sent  with  him  ten  commissioners  to  inquire 
into  the  causes  of  the  revolt,  and  to  send  the  authors 
of  it  to  him  for  punishment. 

In  the  following  year  (800),  Charles  resolved  to 
visit  Rome  in  person.  Having  this  spring  no  war- 
like expedition  on  foot,  he  made  a  progress  througli 
Neustria.  To  this  period  belongs  the  anecdote 
related  by  the  monk  of  St.  Gall,  of  Charles  being 
eye-witness  to  one  of  the  pu-atical  expeditions  of 
the  Normans,  and  of  his  melancholy  foresight  of  the 
scourge  these  hardy  freebooters  were  destined  to 
become  to  his  realm.  "  It  happened  that  CHiarles 
arrived  unexpectedly  at  a  seaside  town.  While  at 
table,  some  barks  of  the  Norman  pirates  appeared 
within  view  of  the  port.  Some  took  them  for 
Jewish  merchants,  other  for  Africans,  or  Britons. 
But  the  experienced  king  recognized,  by  the  build 
and  the  swiftness  of  these  vessels,  that  they  were 
not  vessels  of  commerce,  but  of  war.  '  These  ships,' 
he  cried,  *  are  full,  not  of  merchandise,  but  of  bitter 
enemies.'  All  who  were  present  hastened  to  the 
attack  of  these  enemies,  but  in  vain ;  for  the  Nor- 
mans, having  learnt  that  he  whom  they  were  accus- 
tomed to  call  Charles  Martel  was  there,  fearing  to 
encounter  the  hero,  withdrew  with  unaccustomed 


CHAKLES   EMPEROR.  277 

speed  not  only  from  the  blows,  but  from  the  sight 
of  their  pursuers.  .  .  .  But  the  religious  Charles, 
rising  from  table,  leaned  against  a  window,  and 
remained  there  a  long  time  plunged  in  thought, 
with  the  tears  flowing  down  his  face.  None  of  his 
great  men  dared  to  question  him,  but  he  addressed 
them  :  '  Do  you  know,  my  liege-men,  why  I  weep  ? 
I  do  not  fear  that  these  men  can  hurt  us,  but  it 
afflicts  me  that  while  I  live  they  have  dared  to 
insult  my  coasts,  and  I  foresee  with  grief  what 
evil  they  will  do  to  my  descendants  and  their 
subjects.'" 

In  truth,  when  Charles  had  conquered  all  his 
enemies  on  every  side  on  land,  then  they  began  to 
spring  up  on  every  side  by  sea.  The  pagan  pirates 
from  the  Danish  and  Scandinavian  peninsulas 
began  not  merely  to  harry  the  coasts,  but  to  pene- 
trate by  the  rivers  into  the  very  heart  of  the  coun- 
try, and  at  last,  as  we  English  well  know,  won  a 
whole  province  in  the  north  of  France.  At  the 
same  time  the  Saracen  pirates  began  to  harry  the 
sea-coasts  of  the  Mediterranean,  and  continued  to 
practise  piracy  as  a  legitimate  form  of  warfare  down 
to  the  end  of  the  last  century. 

At  Tours  Charles  remained  for  three  months, 
detained  partly  by  the  illness  and  death  of  his 
young  wife,  Luitgarda,  who  in  seven  years  of  a 
gentle  reign  had  almost  effaced  the  recollection  of 
the  evil  influence  of  Fastrada. 

Towards  the  end  of  November  Charles  arrived  at 
Rome.     His  first  care  was  to  convoke  aa  assembly 


278  CHARLEMAGNE. 


of  the  chief  men  of  the  city,  and  to  summon  the 
accusers  of  the  pope  to  prove  their  accusations 
against  him.  The  clergy  declared  that  it  was 
beyond  their  authority  to  sit  in  judgment  on  the 
pope.  It  is  the  same  constitutional  difficulty  which 
Charles  the  first  raised  when  he  said  that  there  was 
no  tribunal  which  could  lawfully  try  him.  Never- 
theless the  patrician,  representing  the  Imperial 
authority,  which  had  often  before  brought  popes 
before  its  tribunal,  held  several  sittings  of  his  high 
court  of  justice,  and  invited  witnesses  to  come  for- 
ward. When  none  appeared,  Charles  called  upon 
Leo  to  free  himself  by  oath  of  the  charges  which 
had  been  made  against  him.  The  pope  being  thus 
formally  acquitted,  the  ringleaders  of  the  conspiracy 
against  him  were  an'aigned ;  they  attempted  no 
defence,  and  were  condemned  to  death,  but  at  the 
intercession  of  the  pope  their  fate  was  commuted 
for  perpetual  exile. 

Thus  the  days  of  December  passed,  and  the  gi-eat 
festival  of  Christmas  arrived,  and  all  the  world 
flocked  to  the  basilica  of  St.  Peter's,  to  the  great 
eucharistic  service  of  the  day. 

The  basilica,  the  gift  of  Constantine  to  the  Roman 
Church,  was  a  vast  and  splendid  building,  divided 
by  four  rows  of  Corinthian  columns,  into  a  nave 
and  double  aisles.  At  the  upper  end,  behind  the 
altar,  was  the  elevated  seat  of  the  bishop,  with  the 
principal  clergj''  on  their  semi-circular  bench  on 
each  side  of  him ;  in  front  of  the  altar,  the  large 
open  crypt  called  the  Confession  of  St,  Peter,  within 


CHARLES   EMPEROR.  279 

which  was  the  Apostle's  shrine.  It  must  have  been 
a  magnificent  sight.  The  sanctuary  and  choir  filled 
with  the  clergy  in  their  white  vestments ;  the  rest 
of  the  church  occupied  on  one  side  by  the  senators 
and  nobles  of  Rome,  still  retaining  their  ancient 
costume  of  state — the  white  tunic  with  its  laticlave 
and  the  embroidered  toga  ;  on  the  other  side  by  the 
great  officials  of  the  Frank  king,  in  their  national 
costume,  of  which  the  banded  drawers  and  furred 
cloak  would  especially  attract  the  spectator's  eye — 
Charles  alone  of  the  Franks  wearing  the  unwonted 
costume  of  a  Roman  patrician;  the  rest  of  the 
vast  nave  filled  with  a  mixed  crowd  of  Romans 
and  of  Franks. 

Charles,  on  entering  the  church,  descended  the 
stairs  into  the  Chapel  of  the  Confession  to  pay  his 
homage  at  the  Apostle's  shrine.  As  he  reascended 
and  appeared  in  sight  of  all  the  people,  in  front 
of  the  altar,  the  pope  stepped  forward  with  a 
golden  crown,  which  he  placed  upon  his  head ; 
those  who  surrounded  him  raised  the  cry,  which 
echoed  again  and  again  through  the  great  build- 
ing :  "  Carolus  Augustus,  a  Deo  coronatus,  Impe- 
rator  magnus  et  pacificus,  vita  et  victoria."  Then 
the  pope  set  the  example  of  doing  homage  to  the 
new  emperor,  which  was  followed  by  the  rest  of 
the  nobles  and  clergy,  Italian  and  Frank. 

The  coronation  of  Charles  as  emperor  is  the 
central  point  in  the  transition  from  the  ancient  to 
the  mediaeval  history  of  Europe.  It  was  a  gorgeous 
representation   of  the  union   between  the   ancient 


280  CHARLEMAGNE. 


Latin  civilization  and  the  fresh  vitality  of  the 
barbarian  races,  which  had  long  been  in  progi-ess, 
which  was  not  yet  complete.  The  coronation 
of  Charles  by  the  pope  is  the  source  of  that  in- 
teraction between  the  emperor  and  the  papacy 
which  so  largely  influenced  the  history  of  the 
middle  age. 

What  is,  perhaps,  of  most  importance  to  us,  is 
that  this  event  was  for  centuries  afterwards  quoted 
in  support  of  opposite  theories  of  the  relations 
between  Church  and  State,  which  had  a  great  in- 
fluence upon  the  practical  politics,  and  a  lasting 
efiect  upon  the  Christianity  of  Europe.  We  are 
now  in  the  period  of  confusion  which  has  suc- 
ceeded upon  the  failure  of  these  mediaeval  rela- 
tions of  Church  and  State,  out  of  which  new  rela- 
tions have  to  be  evolved.  We  shall  all  do  well 
to  make  ourselves  acquainted  with  the  lessons 
of  the  past,  in  view  of  the  practical  work  of  the 
future. 

The  best  waj',  perhaps,  of  showing  the  thoughts 
and  motives  of  those  actually  concerned  in  this 
important  transaction,  is  to  transcribe  the  narratives 
of  three  contemporary,  or  almost  contemporary, 
annalists,  two  of  them  German  and  one  Italian. 
The  annals  of  Lauresheim  say : — 

"  And  because  the  name  of  emperor  had  now 
ceased  among  the  Greeks,  and  their  empire  was 
possessed  by  a  woman,  it  then  seemed,  both  to  Leo 
the  pope  himself,  and  to  all  the  holy  fathers,  who 
were  present  in  the   selfsame    council,  as  well  as 


CHAKLES  EMPEROR.  281 

to  the  rest  of  the  Christian  people,  that  they  ought 
to  take  to  be  emperor  Charles,  King  of  the  Franks, 
who  held  Rome  herself,  where  the  Csesars  had  always 
been  wont  to  sit,  and  all  the  other  regions  which 
he  ruled  through  Italy  and  Gaul  and  Germany ; 
and  inasmuch  as  God  had  given  all  these  lands 
into  his  hand,  it  seemed  right  that,  with  the  help 
of  God,  and  at  the  prayer  of  the  whole  Christian 
people,  he  should  have  the  name  of  emperor  also. 
Whose  petition  King  Charles  willed  not  to  refuse, 
but  submitting  himself  with  all  humility  to  God, 
and  at  the  prayer  of  the  priests  and  of  the  whole 
Christian  people,  on  the  day  of  the  nativity  of 
our  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  he  took  on  himself  the 
name  of  emperor,  being  consecrated  by  the  Lord 
Pope  Leo." 

Very  similar  in  substance  is  the  account  of  the 
chronicle  of  Moissac  : — 

"  Now  when  the  king,  upon  the  most  holy  day 
of  the  Lord's  birth,  was  rising  to  the  mass,  after 
praying  before  the  confession  of  the  blessed  Peter 
the  Apostle,  Leo  the  pope,  with  the  consent  of  all  the 
bishops  and  priests,  and  of  the  senate  of  the  Franks, 
and  likewise  of  the  Romans,  set  a  golden  crown 
upon  his  head,  the  Roman  people  also  shouting 
aloud.  And  when  the  people  had  made  an  end  of 
chanting  the  Lauds,  he  was  adored  by  the  pope 
after  the  manner  of  the  emperors  of  old.  For  this 
also  was  done  by  the  will  of  God.  For  while  the 
said  emperor  abode  at  Rome,  certain  men  were 
brought   unto  him,   who   said   that  the    name   of 


282  CHARLEMAGNE. 


emperor  had  ceased  among  the  Greeks,  and  that 
among  them  the  empire  was  held  by  a  woman 
called  Irene,  who  had  by  guile  laid  hold  of  her 
son,  the  emperor,  and  put  out  his  ej'es,  and  taken 
the  empire  to  herself,  as  it  is  written  of  Athalia 
in  the  Book  of  the  Kings ;  which,  when  Leo  the  pope 
and  all  the  assembled  bishops  and  priests  and  abbots 
heard,  and  the  senate  of  the  Franks  and  all  the 
elders  of  the  Romans,  they  took  counsel  with  the 
rest  of  the  Christian  people,  that  they  should  name 
Charles,  King  of  the  Franks,  to  be  emperor,  seeing 
that  he  held  Rome,  the  mother  of  empire,  where 
the  Csesars  and  emperors  were  always  used  to  sit, 
and  that  the  heathen  might  not  mock  the  Christians 
if  the  name  of  emperor  should  have  ceased  among 
the  Christians." 

The  third  accoimt  is  by  a  Roman  ^n•ite^,  written 
probably  within  fifty  or  sixty  yoai-s  of  the  event. 
It  is  taken  from  the  Life  of  Leo  III.,  in  the  "  Vitse 
Pontificorum  Roraanorum,"  compiled  by  Anastasius, 
the  Papal  librarian : — 

"  After  these  things  came  the  day  of  the  birth  of 
our  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  and  all  men  were  gathered 
together  in  the  basilica  of  the  blessed  Peter  the 
Apostle ;  and  then  the  gracious  and  venerable 
pontiff  did,  with  his  own  hands,  croAvn  Charles 
with  a  very  precious  crown.  Then  all  the  faithful 
people  of  Rome,  seeing  the  defence  that  he  gave, 
and  the  love  that  he  bare  to  the  holy  Roman  Church 
and  her  vicar,  did,  by  the  w411  of  God  and  of  the 
blessed  Peter,  the  keeper  of  the  keys  of  the  king- 


CHARLES   EilPEROR.  283 

dom  of  heaven,  cry  with  one  accord  vrith  a  loud 
voice, '  To  Charles,  the  most  pious  Augustus,  crowned 
of  God,  the  gieat  and  peace-giving  emperor,  be  life 
and  victory.'  While  he,  before  the  holy  confession 
of  the  blessed  Peter  the  Apostle,  was  invoking 
divers  saints,  it  was  proclaimed  there  that  he  was 
chosen  by  all  to  be  emperor  of  the  Romans.  There- 
upon the  most  holy  pontiff"  anointed  Charles  with 
holy  oil,  and  likewise  his  most  excellent  son  to  be 
king,  upon  the  very  day  of  the  birth  of  our  Lord 
Jesus  CTirist ;  and  when  the  mass  was  finished, 
then  after  the  mass  the  most  serene  lord  emperor 
offered  gifts." 

Charles  was  actually  lord  of  Rome,  the  ancient 
seat  of  empire,  and  of  the  territoiy  which  anciently 
formed  the  western  half  of  the  ancient  empire.* 
The  Franks  might  very  naturally  think,  as  they 
had  done  in  the  case  of  Pepin,  that  he  who  pos- 
sessed the  power  and  authority  of  empire  should 
also  bear  the  title  and  dignity  of  emperor.  The 
Romans  had  made  up  their  minds,  in  consideration 
of  their  own  interests,  to  break  the  last  link  of 
formal  acknowledgment  of  subjection  to  the  court 
of  Constantinople,  and  to  revive  the  empire  of  the 
West. 

It  was  clearly  a  politic  stroke  to  bind  their 
friendly  and  powerful  protector  still  more  strongly 
to  their  interests ;  it  was  of  still  more  obvious  ad- 
vantage to  get  Rome  adopted  as  the  capital  of  the 

*  What  he  lacked  of  the  ancient  limits  of  the  Western  Empire 
on  the  side  of  Spain,  was  more  than  balanced  by  the  extension  of 
his  dominion  beyond  the  Rhine. 


284  CHARLEMAGNE. 


new  Franco-Italian  empire,  and  so  to  recover  for 
Rome  a  part,  at  least,  of  its  ancient  prosperity  and 
glory.  It  would  gratify  the  Latin  race  everywhere 
— in  Italy,  in  Aquitaine,  in  Neustria — to  know  that 
they  were  no  longer  governed  by  a  king  of  the 
Franks  and  the  Lombards,  but  that  the  Franks 
and  the  Lombards  were  absorbed  in  the  revived 
empire. 

The  legal  aspect  of  the  transaction  is  that  the 
senate,  which,  three  centuries  before,  had  deposed 
Augustulus,  declined  to  elect  another  emperor  for 
the  West,  and  returned  the  Imperial  ornaments  to 
Constantinople,  now  assumed  to  itself  the  right  to 
revive  the  empire  of  the  West,  and  to  elect  Charles 
as  emperor.  The  assumption  that  the  empire  of  the 
East  had  ceased  to  exist,  and  that  Charles  was  the 
immediate  successor  of  Constantine  VI.,  was  clearly 
a  diplomatic  weapon  intended  to  be  used  in  the 
controversy  which  was  certain  to  ensue  with  the 
Byzantine  court.  It  prepared  the  way  for  a  com- 
promise in  which  each  emperor  should  recognize 
the  other. 

Eginhard  tells  us  that  Charles  was  accustomed 
to  declare  that,  liad  he  known  the  pope's  intention, 
he  would  not  have  entered  the  basilica  of  St.  Peter 
on  that  day.  There  is  sufficient  evidence  that 
the  assumption  of  the  Imperial  dignity  had  been 
the  subject  of  previous  discussion  both  among  the 
Romans  and  the  Franks,  that  all  desired  it,  and 
that  Charles  was  not  unwilling  to  accept  it.  We 
suppose  Eginhard  to  mean  nothing  more  than  that 


CHARLES   EMPEROR.  285 

Charles  had  not  expected  the  important  step  to 
be  taken  when  and  as  it  was.  He  may  have  been 
negotiating  with  Constantinople  for  a  recognition 
of  the  revival  of  the  empire  of  the  West ;  or,  for 
some  other  reason,  he  may  have  thought  the  time 
was  not  yet  ripe.  But  his  hand  was  forced,  and 
he  showed  his  prompt  sagacity  in  allowing  it  to 
be  so.  The  Senatus  Populusque  Romani  offered 
him  the  Imperial  dignity,  by  the  hand  of  the  prelate 
who  had  long  been  recognized  as  the  political 
leader  of  their  Respuhlica,  in  a  great  assembly  of 
all  that  was  noblest  in  Rome,  amidst  the  Frankish 
prelates  and  counsellors  and  captains.  He  could 
not  openly  refuse  it  when  tendered  under  such 
circumstances,  to  claim  it  a  little  later  as  the  result 
of  a  transaction  with  the  Byzantine  court.  He 
acted  wisely  that  he  did  not  hesitate  a  moment 
then,  however  he  may  have  expressed  his  dissatis- 
faction afterwards  to  his  own  intimates. 

At  first  sight,  it  seems  as  if  his  accession  to  the 
Imperial  title  could  make  very  little  practical  dif- 
ference in  the  affairs  of  Charles's  dominions.  It 
might  seem  that,  as  Charles  Martel  had  been 
virtually  king  long  before  the  Franks  gave  his  son 
Pepin  the  title,  so  Charles,  his  grandson,  had  been 
virtually  emperor  long  before  the  Romans  added 
the  Imperial  style  and  dignity.  But  in  the  eyes 
of  Western  Christendom  the  election  and  corona- 
tion of  Christmas  Day,  800,  did  something  more 
than  gi-ace  with  the  Imperial  title  one  who  was 
already  de  facto  emperor.      It  revived  the  idea  of 


286  CHARLEMAGNE. 


the  Empire — ^not  the  empire  of  Augustus,  but  the 
empire  of  Constantine  and  Theodosius.  That  Chris- 
tian empire  had  seemed  to  the  world  for  a  time  to 
be  the  realization  of  the  fifth  universal  monarchy, 
It  had  been  submerged  beneath  the  waves  of  bar- 
barism, and  apparently  lost.  It  was  now  re-estab- 
lished in  new  vigour,  like  Jerusalem  after  the 
Babylonian  captivity.  The  old  Roman  theory  liad 
not,  after  a  lapse  of  three  centuries,  died  out,  tliat 
the  emperor  was  the  sacred  centre  and  source  of 
all  authority.  In  the  eyes  of  contemporary  Europe, 
the  election  and  consecration  of  Charles  to  the 
empire  gave  a  wider  range  and  a  new  sacredness  to 
his  authority.  The  best  evidence  of  this  is  derived 
from  the  acts  of  the  new  emperor  himself. 

On  his  return  to  Germany,  a  great  assembly  was 
held  at  Aix  in  802,  in  which  the  emperor  issued 
a  capitulary  by  which  he  requires  all  persons 
within  his  dominions,  as  well  ecclesiastical  as  civil, 
although  they  may  have  already  sworn  allegiance 
to  him  as  king,  to  take  a  new  oath  of  obedience 
.  to  him  as  emperor.  "  At  the  same  time,  he  enacts, 
it  shall  be  publicly  explained  to  all  what  is  the 
force  and  meaning  of  this  oatli,  and  how  mucli 
more  it  includes  than  a  mere  promise  of  fidelity 
to  the  monarch's  person.  Firstly,  it  binds  those 
who  swear  it  to  live,  each  and  every  one  of  them 
according  to  his  strength  and  knowledge,  in  the 
holy  service  of  God,  since  the  lord  emperor  cannot 
extend  over  all  his  care  and .  discipline.  Secondly, 
it  bids  them  neither  by  force  nor  fraud  to  seize  or 


CHARLES  EMPEROR.  287 

molest  any  of  the  goods  or  servants  of  the  crown. 
Thirdly,  to  do  no  violence  nor  treason  towards  the 
holy  Church,  or  to  widows  or  orphans  or  strangers, 
seeing  that  the  lord  emperor  has  been  appointed, 
after  the  Lord  and  His  saints,  the  protector  and 
defender  of  all  such.  Then,  in  similar  fashion, 
purity  of  life  is  prescribed  to  the  monks  ;  homicide, 
the  neglect  of  hospitality,  and  other  offences  are 
denounced,  the  notions  of  sin  and  crime  beino- 
intermingled  and  almost  identified  in  a  way  to 
which  no  parallel  can  be  found,  except  it  be  in  the 
Mosaic  code.  There  God,  the  invisible  object  of 
worship,  is  also  the  Judge  and  political  Ruler  of 
Israel.  Here,  the  whole  cycle  of  social  and  moral 
duty  is  deduced  from  the  obligation  of  obedience 
to  the  visible  autocratic,  Imperial  head  of  the 
Christian  Church."  * 

The  relation  of  the  emperor  to  the  Church,  as 
Charles  understood  it,  was  the  revival  of  the  rela- 
tion of  "  the  godly  kings  of  the  Old  Testament  "  to 
the  Jewish  Chm-ch,  the  relation  of  Constantine 
and  the  other  early  Christian  emperors  to  the 
Church  of  Christ ;  not  interfering  with  the  special 
functions  of  the  ministiy,  not  violating  the  canons 
of  the  Church,  but  using  all  his  power  for  the 
maintenance  of  Christian  faith  and  Christian  dis- 
cipline within  the  Church,  for  the  protection  of 
the  Church  from  oppression,  and  for  the  propaga- 
tion  of  the  faith  throughout  the   world.     Charles 

*  Bryce,  "  Holy  Roman  Empire,"  p  Go. 


288  CHAELEMAGNE. 


recognized  an  authority  in  the  Roman  See  which 
we,  under  the  pressure  of  subsequent  usurpations 
and  tyrannies,  have  found  it  necessary  to  repudiate 
altogether;  but  all  that  Charles  recognized  was 
that  the  see  of  Rome  was  the  patriarchal  see  of 
Western  Christendom,  and  possessed  a  visitatorial 
authority  over  all  its  Churches. 

This  Avas  Charles's  view,  and  the  view  which 
the  statesmen,  ecclesiastical  and  lay,  of  his  age 
had  formed  of  the  relations  of  the  Church  and  the 
State.  But  "  the  event  admitted  of  being  after- 
wards represented  in  difierent  lights.  In  subse- 
quent times  three  distinct  theories  regarding  the 
coronation  of  Charles  will  be  found  advocated  by 
three  different  parties,  all  of  them  plausible,  all 
of  them  to  some  extent  misleading.  The  Swabian 
emperors  held  the  crown  to  have  been  won  by 
their  great  predecessor  as  the  prize  of  conquest, 
and  drew  the  conclusion  that  the  citizens  and 
Bishop  of  Rome  had  no  rights  as  against  them- 
selves. The  patriotic  party  among  the  Romans, 
appealing  to  the  early  history  of  the  empire,  de- 
clared that  by  nothing  but  the  voice  of  their 
senate  and  people  could  an  emperor  be  lawfully 
created,  he  being  only  their  chief  magistrate — the 
temporary  depository  of  their  authority.  The 
popes  pointed  to  the  indisputable  fact  that  Leo 
imposed  the  crown,  and  argued  that  as  God's 
earthly  vicar  it  was  then  his,  and  must  always 
continue  to  be  their  right  to  give  to  whomsoever 
they   would   an   office   which   was   created   to    be 


CHAKLES  EMPEROR.  289 

the  handmaid  of  their  own.  Of  these  three  it 
was  the  last  view  which  ultimately  prevailed, 
yet  to  an  impartial  eye  it  cannot  claim  any 
more  than  do  the  two  others  to  contain  the  whole 
truth."  * 

*  Bryce,  "  Holy  Roman  Empire,"  p.  57. 


U 


290  CHARLEMAGNE. 


CHAPTER  XXI. 
Charles's  personal  character  and  domestic 

LIFE. 

His  alliances — Anecdote  of  his  reception  of  ambassadors — His 
buildings — His  wives  and  cliildren — Education  of  Liis  children 
— His  affection  for  them — Loved  the  resort  of  foreigners  to  his 
court — Description  of  his  person  and  habits — His  costume — 
His  habits  at  table — His  learning — His  devotion. 

This  is  perhaps  a  convenient  place  for  giving  those 
particulars  of  the  personality  and  the  private  life  of 
the  great  Frank  emperor,  which  not  only  are  the 
"  touches  of  nature  "  which  form  the  closest  link  of 
interest  between  the  men  of  exceptional  fortunes 
and  the  rest  of  mankind,  but  which  also  help  us  to 
understand  their  public  character  and  career. 

Eginhard  has  given  us  so  full  and  skilful  a 
sketch  of  the  subject,  that  we  need  do  little  more 
than  select  from  what  he  has  given,  and  illustrate 
it  here  and  there  from  other  sources,  and  our  task  is 
fulfiUed. 

"He  increased  the  glory  of  his  reign  by  con- 
ciliating the  friendship  of  many  kings  and  many 


Charles's  personal  character.         291 

nations.  He  attached  to  himself  Alphonso,  King  of 
Gallicia  and  the  Asturias,  by  so  close  an  alliance 
that  this  prince,  on  sending  letters  or  ambassadors 
to  him,  was  content  to  style  himself  his  '  man.'  The 
kings  of  the  Scots,  won  by  his  magnificence,  also 
had  so  great  a  respect  for  his  will  that  they  never 
gave  him  any  other  name  than  '  Lord,'  and  declared 
themselves  his  subjects  and  serfs.  He  maintained 
so  firm  a  friendship  with  Haroim,  King  of  Persia 
(the  famous  Haroun-al-Raschid),  who  possessed  all 
the  East  save  India,  that  this  prince  estimated  his 
friendship  before  the  alliance  of  all  the  kings  upon 
the  earth,  and  to  him  alone  did  he  accord  tokens  of 
honour  and  munificence.  Thus,  when  the  ambas- 
sadors whom  Charles  had  sent  with  presents  to 
visit  the  holy  sepulchre  of  our  Divine  Saviour,  and 
the  place  of  the  resurrection,  presented  themselves 
before  him  and  expressed  their  master's  desire,  he 
did  not  content  himself  with  granting  the  king's 
request,  but  he  desired  to  make  him  the  sole  pro- 
prietor of  the  places  consecrated  by  the  mystery  of 
our  redemption.  On  their  return  he  sent  with 
them  ambassadors  of  his  own,  to  present  to  Charles, 
besides  silks,  perfumes,  and  other  rich  products 
of  the  East,  the  most  magnificent  gifts.  Already, 
some  years  before,  he  had,  at  his  request,  sent  him 
an  elephant,  which  he  still  had.  The  Emperors  of 
Constantinople,  Nicephorus,  Michael,  and  Leo,  de- 
sirous of  obtaining  the  friendship  and  alliance  of 
Charles,  were  the  first  to  send  him  ambassadors. 
They  had  been  put  in  great  anxiety  on  seeing  hun 


292  CHARLEJIAGNE. 


assume  the  title  of  "Emperor,"  which  seemed  to 
imply  designs  against  their  power.  But  he  con- 
tracted so  firm  an  alliance  with  them,  that  there 
remained  no  cause  for  disagreement.  But,  indeed, 
the  power  of  the  Franks  has  always  given  umbrage 
to  the  Greeks  and  the  Romans,  so  that  there  is  a 
Greek  proverb  which  says,  '  Have  the  Frank  for  a 
friend,  but  not  for  a  neighbour.' " 

The  monk  of  St.  Gall  adds  some  stories  on  the  sub- 
ject of  his  dealing  with  these  ambassadors.  "  Some 
envoys  of  his  own  to  the  Byzantine  court,  a  bishop 
and  a  count,  had  been  made  to  wait  a  long  time 
for  an  audience,,  and  to  go  from  place  to  place  till 
their  means  as  well  as  their  patience  were  almost 
exhausted,  and  then  they  had  been  treated  with 
scant  courtesy.  Not  long  after  the  emperor  sent 
ambassadors  to  Charles.  The  bishop  and  the 
count  suggested  that  they  should  be  repaid  in  their 
own  coin.  Accordingly,  they  were  led  about,  across 
the  Alps  and  through  wilds,  till  they  were  worn 
out  with  the  hardships  and  impoverished  by  the 
costs  of  the  journey.  When  at  last  they  aiTived 
where  Charles  was,  they  entered  into  the  court- 
yard of  the  palace,  and  saw  there  an  imposing-look- 
ing Frank  sitting  surrounded  by  attendants;  they 
supposed  it  wa^  the  emperor,  and  were  about  to 
prostrate  themselves  before  him,  when  they  were 
told  with  a  smile  that  this  was  the  count  of  the 
stables,  that  they  would  find  Charles  within  the 
palace.  When  they  entered  the  hall,  they  saw 
a   more   dignified    personage    sitting    in    the    hall 


Charles's  personal  character.         293 

among  a  group  of  officers.  Supposing  this,  therefore, 
to  be  the  emperor,  they  were  again  going  to  do 
homage,  when  they  were  told,  this  was  the  count  of 
the  palace — they  would  find  Charles  in  his  chamber 
beyond.  In  the  next  chamber  was  a  still  more 
imposing  personage,  with  a  larger  attendance  of 
richly  adorned  officials,  to  whom  again  they  were 
going  to  do  homage,  but  were  told  he  was  the 
Magister  Regice.  Here  they  were  detained  while 
permission  was  sought  for  them  to  be  admitted  to 
the  presence  of  the  king.  The  mortified  courtiers 
of  the  Byzantine  emperor  were  at  last  ceremo- 
niously ushered  into  the  audience  chamber,  and 
there  found  Charles,  'most  glorious  of  kings,' 
glittering  like  the  rising  sun  with  gold  and  gems, 
leaning  on  the  shoulder  ©f  the  bishop  who  on  his 
embassy  to  Constantinople  had  been  so  unhand- 
somely treated,  surrounded  as  if  by  the  heavenly 
host  by  the  three  kings,  his  sons,  his  daughters,  and 
their  mother,  not  less  adorned  with  wisdom  and 
beauty  than  with  jewels ;  bishops  incomparable  for 
dignity  and  virtues ;  abbots  most  distinguished  for 
nobility  and  sanctity ;  dukes  like  him  who  ap- 
peared to  Joshua  in  the  camp  at  Gilgal ;  and 
soldiers  like  those  who  put  to  flight  the  SjTians 
from  Samaria.  Then  the  Greek  ambassadors  fell 
to  the  pavement  speechless  and  half-dead,  and 
Charles  generously  bade  them  rise,  and  attempted 
to  reassure  them  with  friendly  words.  On  another 
occasion  the  ambassador  of  the  famous  Caliph 
Haroun-al-Raschid  was  taken  round  through  Rome, 


294  CHARLEMAGNE, 


and  so  through  the  great  cities  of  Italy  and  Gaul, 
to  impress  him  duly  with  the  grandeur  of  the 
kingdom  over  which  the  great  Charles  reigned." 

We  go  back  to  Eginhard's  narrative.  "  The  prince 
who  showed  himself  so  great  in  the  organization  of 
his  empire  and  the  conquest  of  other  nations,  and 
who  was  constantly  occupied  in  the  execution  of 
such  vast  designs,  nevertheless  undertook  numerous 
works  for  the  ornament  and  advantage  of  his  king- 
dom. Among  them  may  especially  be  noted  the 
basilica  of  the  Holy  Mother  of  our  Lord,  which  he 
caused  to  be  built  at  Aix-la-Chapelle  with  admir- 
able art,  and  a  bridge  of  five  hundred  paces  long 
constructed  at  Mayence,  across  the  Rhine.  He 
began  two  palaces  of  remarkable  labour ;  one  near 
the  domain  of  Ingelheim,  not  far  from  Mayence, 
the  other  at  Nimeguen.  But  the  sacred  edifices 
throughout  the  whole  extent  of  his  realm  were  the 
special  objects  of  his  care.  As  soon  as  he  learnt 
that  these  ornaments  were  falling  into  decay,  he 
wrote  to  the  bishops  and  religious  who  had  the 
guardianship  of  them  to  cause  them  to  be  restored, 
and  appointed  commissioners  to  watch  over  the 
fulfilment  of  his  orders.  .  .  . 

"  May  I  be  permitted  to  express  here  my  admira- 
tion for  his  great  qualities,  for  his  invariable  equa- 
nimity in  good  as  in  bad  fortune  ?  I  wUl  now  relate 
the  details  of  his  private  and  domestic  life.  After 
the  death  of  his  father,  when  he  had  shared  the 
kingdom  with   his   brother    Carloman,  he  bore  so 


CHARLES'S   PERSONAL   CHARACTER.  295 

patiently  the  enmity  and  jealousy  of  his  brother, 
that  it  was  a  subject  of  wonder  to  every  one  that 
he  did  not  give  way  even  to  any  exhibition  of  anger. 
Afterwards,  having  married,  at  his  mother's  desire, 
the  daughter  of  Didier,  King  of  the  Lombards,  he 
repudiated  her,  it  is  not  very  well  known  for  what 
reasons,   at  the  end  of  a  year,  and  took  to  wife 
Hildegarda,   the    daughter    of    one    of    the    most 
illustrious  families  of  the  nation  of  the  Suevi.     She 
bore  him  three  sons,  Charles,  Pepin,  and  Louis,  and 
as   many  daughters,  Rotruda,  Bertha,  and   Gisela. 
He   had  also  three   other   daughters,  Theodorada, 
Hiltruda,  and  Ruodhaid ;  the  first  two  by  Fastrada, 
his  thh'd  wife,  who  was  of  the  Austrasians ;   the 
third  by  a  concubine  whose  name  escapes  me  at  the 
moment.     When  he  had  lost  Fastrada,  he  married 
an  Alleman  named  Luitgarda,  by  whom  he  had  no 
childi-en.     After  the  death  of  the  latter  he  had  four 
concubines :  Multegarda,  who  bore  him  a  daughter 
named  Rothilda;  Gersuinda,  of  Saxon  origin,  by 
whom  he  had  Adaltruda  the  queen,  who  was  the 
mother  of  Drogon  *  and  of  Hugues ;  f  and,  lastly, 
Adalinda,  by  whom  he  had  Thierry.     His  mother 
Bertrada  grew  old  beside  him,  loaded  with  honours. 
He  always  showed  the  gi-eatest  respect  to  her,  and 
never  did  the  slightest  cloud  arise  between  them, 
except  on   the   occasion  of  his   divorce   from   the 
daughter  of  King  Didier,  whom  he  had  married  by 
her  advice.     She  died  after  the  Queen  Hildegarda, 
having  already  seen  three  grandsons  and  as  many 
*  Bishop  of  Metz  in  823.  f  Abbot  of  St.  Quentin. 


296  CHARLEMAGNE. 


granddaughters  in  her  son's  house.  Charles  caused 
her  to  be  buried  with  great  pomp  in  the  basilica  of 
St.  Denis,  where  already  lay  the  body  of  her  father. 
He  had  an  only  sister,  named  Gisela,  who  was  con- 
secrated from  her  earliest  years  to  a  monastic  life, 
and  to  whom,  as  to  his  mother,  he  always  showed 
the  greatest  affection.  She  died  a  few  years  before 
him,  in  the  monastery  in  which  she  had  passed  her 
life. 

"According  to  the  plan  of  education  which  he 
adopted  for  his  children,  his  sons  and  his  daughters 
were  instructed  in  the  liberal  studies  which  he  him- 
self cultivated.  Then,  as  soon  as  the  age  of  his  sons 
permitted,  he  made  them  practise,  after  the  custom 
of  the  Franks,  riding,  the  use  of  arms,  and  hunting. 
As  for  his  daughters,  he  not  only  sought  to  keep 
them  from  idleness  by  making  them  learn  to  work 
in  wool,  to  use  the  distaff  and  spindle,  but  also  to 
bring  them  up  in  all  honourable  sentiments.  Of 
all  his  children,  he  lost,  before  his  own  death,  only 
two  sons  and  a  daughter :  Charles,  who  was  the 
eldest ;  Pepin,  to  whom  he  had  given  the  kingdom 
of  Italy ;  and  Rotrude,  the  eldest  of  his  daughters, 
whom  he  had  affianced  to  Constantine,  Emperor  of 
the  Greeks.  Pepin,  dying,  left  a  son  named 
Bemhard  and  five  daughters,  Adalhaida,  Atula, 
Gontrada,  Berthrada,  and  Theodorada.  The  con- 
duct of  the  king  towards  them  was  a  distinguished 
proof  of  his  goodness,  for  he  willed  that  the  son 
of  Pepin  should  succeed  his  father,  and  that  his 
daughters  should  be  brought  up  together  with  his 


Charles's  personal  character.         297 

own.  He  did  not  bear  the  loss  of  his  sons  and  of 
his  daughter  with  all  the  resignation  which  might 
have  been  expected  from  his  strength  of  mind; 
paternal  tenderness,  which  equally  distinguished 
him,  drew  from  him  abundant  tears ;  and  even 
when  the  death  of  Pope  Adrian  was  announced  to 
him,  who  was  one  of  the  friends  to  whom  he  was 
most  attached,  he  did  not  weep  less  than  if  he  had 
lost  a  son  or  brother.  He  was  naturally  inclined 
to  ties  of  friendship,  readily  contracted  them, 
adhered  to  them  with  the  greatest  constancy,  and 
cultivated  with  a  sort  of  religion  the  affection  of 
those  to  whom  he  was  bound  in  such  bonds.  He 
watched  with  so  much  solicitude  over  the  education 
of  his  sons  and  daughters,  that  so  long  as  he  was 
within  his  kingdom  he  never  took  his  meals,  never 
journeyed  without  them.  His  sons  accompanied 
him  on  horseback,  his  daughters  followed  him,  and 
some  of  his  guards  were  charged  with  the  protection 
of  the  rear  of  the  cortege.  They  were  very  beautiful, 
and  it  is  astonishing  that  he  would  never  marry 
any  of  them  either  to  his  own  nobles  or  to  foreigners. 
Until  his  death  they  all  lived  with  him  in  his 
palace,  for  he  was  unwilling  to  lose  their  companion- 
ship. So  it  happened  that  though  he  was  fortunate 
in  all  other  respects,  he  experienced  in  the  case  of 
his  daughters  the  malignity  of  fortune.*    But  he  dis- 

*  The  licence  which  Charles  took  himself  was  imitated  by 
others.  It  was  a  dissolute  court,  and  the  daughters  whom  he 
refused  to  allow  to  marry  did  not  escape  the  contagion.  We  do 
not  choose  to  illustrate  the  subject  by  the  well-known  story  of  the 


298  CHARLEMAGNE. 


simulated  his  annoyance,  as  if  no  suspicion  had 
ever  been  entertained  and  spread  abroad  respecting 
them. 

"  He  loved  the  resort  of  foreigners  to  his  court,  and 
received  them  so  well,  that  not  unfrequently  their 
number  was  so  great  as  to  be  a  burden  not  only  on 
the  palace,  but  on  the  kingdom.  As  for  him,  he 
had  a  soul  too  great  to  feel  incommoded  by  such  a 
concourse,  and  he  thought  himself  sufficiently  repaid 
by  the  praises  which  they  gave  to  his  liberality  and 
by  the  advantage  of  an  honourable  fame. 

"  He  was  large  and  robust  in  person  ;  his  stature 
was  lofty,  though  it  did  not  exceed  a  just  proportion, 
for  his  height  was  not  more  than  seven  times  the 
length  of  his  foot.  The  summit  of  his  head  was 
round,  his  eyes  large  and  bright,  his  nose  a  little 
long,  beautiful  white  hair,  and  a  smiling  and 
pleasant  expression.  There  reigned  in  his  whole 
person,  whether  standing  or  seated,  an  air  of 
grandeur  and  dignity ;  and  though  his  neck  was 
thick  and  short,  and  his  body  corpulent,  yet  he  was 
in  other  respects  so  well  proportioned  that  these 
defects  were  not  noticed.  His  walk  was  firm,  and 
his  whole  appearance  manly,  but  his  clear  voice  did 
not  quite  harmonize  with  his  appearance." 

There  exists  no  absolutely  contemporary  portrait. 
His  coinage,  to  which  we  naturally  look  for  the 

liaison  between  one  of  the  princesses  and  Eginhard,  whose  account 
we  are  quoting.  We  will  only  say  that  the  recent  editors  of 
Eginhard  seem  to  prove  that  it  was  not  he  who  was  the  hero  of  the 
scandalous  story. 


Charles's  personal  character,         299 

portraits  of  kings,  was  of  the  lowest  style  of  design, 
any  attempt  at  a^royal  effigy  being  of  the  most  con- 
ventional kind — until  we  come  to  his  assumption  of 
the  Imperial  title ;  then  coins  were  struck  in  Italy 
of  the  same  style  of  design  as  those  of  the  con- 
temporary Byzantine  emperors,  with  a  laureated 
head ;  but  this  also  appears  to  be  little  better  than  a 
conventional  effigy. 

The  famous  mosaic  of  the  Triclinium  of  St.  John 
Lateran  at  Rome,  which  represents  St.  Peter  giving 
the  keys  to  Pope  Leo  III.  and  the  standard  to 
Charles,  is  a  contemporary  work  of  art.  It  re- 
presents Charles  in  the  national  costume  of  banded 
legs  and  short  cloak,  with  a  gold  circlet  on  his 
head,  the  face  broad  and  strong,  with  shorn  chin 
and  cheeks,  and  wearing  a  short  moustache. 

"His  health  was  always  good,  except  during 
the  four  years  which  preceded  his  death.  He 
had  then  frequent  attacks  of  fever;  at  the  last, 
indeed,  he  was  lame  of  one  foot.  In  this  time 
of  suffering  he  treated  himself  more  according 
to  his  own  fancies  than  by  the  advice  of  the 
physicians,  whom  he  had  come  to  dislike,  because 
they  would  have  had  him  abstain  from  the  roast 
meats  he  w^s  accustomed  to,  and  would  have  re- 
stricted him  to  boiled  meats.  He  gave  himself  up 
assiduously  to  riding  and  hunting.  It  was  a 
national  taste  with  him,  for  it  would  be  difficult  to 
find  in  all  the  world  a  people  who  could  equal  the 
Franks  in  these  two  exercises.  Baths  of  natural 
hot  waters  he  delighted  in.     Passionately  fond  of 


300  CHARLEMAGNE. 


swimming,  he  became  so  skilful  in  it  that  no  one 
could  be  compared  with  him  in  it.  It  was  this 
which  induced  him  to  build  a  palace  at  Aix-la- 
Chapelle,  and  to  reside  there  constantly  during  the 
latter  years  of  his  life  and  up  to  his  death.  He 
invited  to  bathe  with  him  not  only  his  sons,  but 
also  his  friends,  the  great  men  of  his  court,  and 
sometimes  even  the  soldiers  of  his  guard,  so  that 
often  a  hundred  persons  and  more  bathed  at  the 
same  time.  His  dress  was  that  of  his  nation,  that 
is  to  say,  of  the  Franks.  Next  the  skin  he  wore  a 
shirt  of  linen,  and  drawers  of  the  same  material ; 
over  that  a  tunic  bordered  with  a  silken  fringe, 
stockings  fastened  with  narrow  bands,  and  shoes. 
In  winter,  a  coat  of  otter  or  martin  fur  covered  his 
shoulders  and  breast.  Over  all  he  wore  a  blue 
mantle."  From  the  monk  of  St.  Gall  we  learn  that 
the  Franks  generally  had  adopted  a  short  cloak, 
but  that  Charles  still  wore  the  long  and  ample 
cloak  of  the  ancient  Franks.  "  Of  what  use,  he  would 
say,  "are  these  short  mantles?  I  cannot  cover  myself 
with  it  in  bed,  and  on  horseback  it  does  not  protect 
me  from  rain  or  wind."  Perhaps  he  was  not  un- 
conscious that  the  long  and  ample  cloak  became  his 
tall  and  portly  figure,  and  distinguished  him  like  a 
royal  robe  amidst  his  short-cloaked  courtiers.  "And 
he  was  always  girded  with  his  sword,*  whose  hilt 
and  baldrick  were  of  gold  or  silver.  Sometimes  he 
wore   one  enriched  with  precious  stones,  but  this 

•  The  romance  heroe8  have  famous  swords,  wliicli  Lave  names. 
The  name  of  Charlemagne's  sword  was  "  Joyeuse." 


Charles's  personal  character.         301 

was  only  at  the  most  solemn  festivals,  or  when  he 
had  to  receive  the  deputies  of  some  foreign  nation. 
He  did  not  like  the  dress  of  other  peoples,  however 
handsome,  and  would  never  wear  them,  except  at 
Rome,  when  first,  at  the  request  of  Adrian,  and  then 
of  Leo  his  successor,  he  allowed  himself  to  be  clad 
in  the  long  tunic,  the  chlamys,  and  the  sandal  of 
the  Romans.  At  the  great  festivals  his  dress  was 
embroidered  with  gold,  and  his  shoes  adorned  with 
precious  stones,  a  brooch  of  gold  fastened  his  mantle, 
and  he  went  crowned  with  a  sparkling  diadem  of 
gold  and  gems;  but  on  other  days  his  dress  was 
simple,  and  diflered  little  from  that  of  the  people. 

"  His  temperance  made  him  avoid  all  the  excesses 
of  the  table,  above  all  that  of  drinking;  for  he 
detested  drunkenness,  in  whoever  it  might  be,  and 
especially  in  himself  and  those  belonging  to  him. 
But  he  did  not  find  it  so  easy  to  abstain  from 
eating,  and  often  complained  of  the  inconvenience 
which  the  fasts  caused  him.  It  was  seldom  he 
gave  banquets,  except  at  the  great  festivals,  and 
then  he  invited  a  great  number  of  guests.  His 
usual  meal  consisted  of  four  dishes,  without  count- 
ing the  roast,  which  was  usually  brought  to  him 
on  the  spit  by  the  huntsmen,  and  of  which  he 
eat  with  more  pleasure  than  of  anything  else. 
While  at  table,  he  liked  to  hear  a  recital  or  a 
reading,  and  it  was  histories  and  the  great  deeds 
of  past  times  which  were  usually  read  to  him. 
He  took  great  pleasure,  also,  in  the  works  of  St. 
Augustine,  and   especially  in   that  whose   title  is 


302  CHARLEMAGNE. 


'  De  Civitate  Dei.'  He  was  so  moderate  in  the 
use  of  wine,  and  of  all  kinds  of  drink,  that  he 
seldom  drank  more  than  three  times  in  the  whole 
time  of  a  meal.  In  summer,  after  the  midday 
meal^  he  took  some  fruit,  drank  a  single  cup  of 
wine,  and  putting  off  his  clothes  and  shoes,  as  at 
night,  he  slept  for  two  or  three  hours.  At  night 
he  interrupted  his  sleep  four  or  five  times,  not  only 
waking,  but  quitting  his  bed.  While  di-essing,  he 
admitted  his  friends,  and  if  the  count  of  the  palace 
informed  him  of  some  cause  which  needed  his  per- 
sonal decision,  he  caused  the  parties  interested  to 
be  brought  in,  heard  the  cause,  and  gave  judgment 
as  if  he  had  been  seated  on  his  tribunal.  It  was 
not  only  this  kind  of  business  which  he  transacted 
at  this  time,  but  everything  which  had  to  be  done 
that  day,  and  the  orders  which  he  had  to  give  to 
his  ministers. 

"Endowed  with  an  abundant  and  irresistible 
eloquence,  he  expressed  his  meaning  with  clearness. 
Not  content  with  knowing  his  native  tongue,  he 
applied  himself  to  the  study  of  other  languages, 
and  especially  of  Latin,  which  he  learnt  well 
enough  to  speak  it  as  well  as  his  mother  tongue. 
As  for  Greek,  he  understood  it  better  than  he  spoke 
it.  In  short,  he  spoke  with  such  facility,  that  he 
even  spoke  a  little  too  much.  Passionately  at- 
tached to  the  liberal  arts,  he  had  always  a  great 
veneration  for  those  who  taught  them,  and  heaped 
honours  upon  them.  The  deacon  Peter  of  Pisa, 
who  was  then  in  his  old  age,  gave  him  lessons  in 


Charles's  personal  character.         303 

grammar.  He  had,  as  his  master  in  other  sciences, 
another  deacon  named  Albin,  surnaraed  Alcuin,  bom 
in  Britain  and  of  Saxon  race,  the  most  learned 
man  of  his  age.  The  king  devoted  much  time  and 
labour  to  the  study  of  rhetoric  with  him,  dialectics, 
and,  above  all,  astronomy.  He  learnt  to  calculate, 
and  took  great  pains  to  study  the  motions  of  the 
stars  with  as  much  diligence  as  sagacity.  He  tried 
to  write,  and  he  had  always  under  the  pillow  of 
his  bed  leaves  and  tablets  to  practise  writing  the 
letters  when  he  had  time.  But  he  made  little 
progress  in  this  accomplishment,  which  did  not  suit 
his  age,  and  which  he  had  begun  too  late. 

"  He  practised  the  Christian  religion  in  all  its 
purity  and  with  great  fervour,  whose  principles 
had  been  taught  him  from  his  infancy.  Therefore 
lie  caused  to  be  erected  at  Aix-la-Chapelle  a  mag- 
nificent basilica,  which  he  adorned  with  gold  and 
silver,  with  candelabra,  with  screens  and  gates  of 
massive  brass,  and  for  which  he  caused  to  be 
brought  from  Rome  and  from  Ravenna*  marbles  and 
columns  which  could  not  be  procured  elsewhere. 
He  diligently  attended  this  church  in  the  evening 
and  morning,  and  even  at  night,  to  assist  at  the 
offices  and  at  the  holy  sacrifice,  as  much  as  his 

*  It  is  probable  that  Ravenna  supplied  not  only  the  marbles 
for  the  church  at  Aix,  but  that  the  church  of  San  Vitale  at 
Baveuna,  begun  by  Theodoric  and  finished  by  Justinian,  supplied 
a  model  to  Charles's  architects.  This  great  church  at  Aix,  being  the 
first  of  any  considerable  size  wliich  had  been  erected  in  these 
regions  for  two  centuries  or  more,  excited  extraordinary  interest 
among  the  Franks  and  Gatds. 


304  CHARLEMAGNE. 


health  permitted  him.  He  watched  with  care  that 
nothing  should  be  done  but  with  the  greatest  pro- 
priety, constantly  ordering  the  guardians  of  the 
church  not  to  allow  anything  to  be  brought  there 
or  left  there  inconsistent  with  or  unworthy  of  the 
sanctity  of  the  place.  He  presented  to  them  a 
gi'eat  number  of  vessels  of  gold  and  silver,  and  such 
a  number  of  vestments  for  the  divine  service  that  the 
veiy  porters,  who  are  the  lowest  of  the  ecclesiastical 
order,  had  special  vestments  in  which  to  exercise 
their  office.  He  introduced  great  improvements  in 
the  lessons  and  in  the  psalmody,  for  he  himself 
was  very  skilful  in  it,  although  he  never  read  in 
public,  and  he  chanted  only  in  a  low  voice  with 
the  rest  of  the  congregation." 

The  monk  of  St.  Gall  tells  us  that  Charles  was 
accustomed  to  mark  the  beofinning  and  end  of  the 
lesson  for  the  reader,  and  to  point  with  his  finger 
to  the  clerk  who  was  to  chant ;  and  he  tells  two  or 
three  curious  anecdotes  on  the  subject.  How  clerks, 
who  could  not  sing  well,  ran  risk  of  di.sgrace  by 
coming  into  the  choir ;  how  one  whom  he  bade  to 
sing  opened  his  mouth  and  rolled  his  head  about  as 
if  he  were  singing  with  the  others,  but  suffered  no 
sound  to  come  out  of  his  mouth.  How  a  clerk, 
who  had  been  promoted  to  a  bishopric,  gave  a  feast 
on  the  occasion,  and  indulged  so  freely  at  it,  that 
he  could  not  sing  at  service  afterwards,  and  how 
another  clerk  took  up  the  chant  and  sung  it  so 
well  that  Charles  took  away  the  see  from  the  one 
and  gave  it  to  the  other. 


Charles's  persoxal  character.         305 

"  He  was  always  ready  to  help  the  poor,  and  it 
was  not  only  in  his  own  country  or  within  his  own 
dominions  that  he  dispensed  those  gi-atuitous  libe- 
ralities which  the  Greeks  call  '  alms/  but  beyond 
the  seas — in  Syria,  in  Egypt,  in  Africa,  at  Jeru- 
salem, at  Alexander,  at  Carthage,  every^vhere  where 
he  learned  that  Christians  were  living  in  poverty — 
he  pitied  their  misery  and  loved  to  send  them 
money.  If  he  sought  with  so  much  care  the  friend- 
ship of  foreign  sovereigns,  it  was,  above  all,  to 
procure  for  the  Christians  living  under  their  rule 
help  and  relief  Of  all  the  holy  places,  he  had, 
above  all,  a  great  veneration  for  the  church  of  the 
Apostle  St.  Peter  at  Eome.  He  spent  large  sums 
for  objects  of  silver  and  gold  and  precious  stones 
to.  present  to  it.  The  popes  received  in  this  way 
from  him  innumerable  and  rich  gifts,  and  during 
his  whole  reign  he  had  nothing  more  at  heart  than 
to  restore  Rome  to  her  ancient  dignity.  He  wished 
not  only  that  the  church  of  St.  Peter  should  be 
defended  and  protected  by  him,  but  that  by  means 
of  his  donations  it  should  surpass  all  other  chui'ches 
in  its  decoration  and  its  riches;  yet,  in  spite  of 
his  love  for  this  church,  during  the  forty-seven 
years  that  his  reign  lasted,  he  was  only  able  four 
times  to  go  thither  to  make  his  prayers  and  offer 
his  vows." 


306  CHARLEMAGNE. 


CHAPTER  XXII. 

THE   REVIVAL  OF   LEARNING. 

The  decay  of  classical  learning — The  character  of  the  monastic 
schools — Learning  valued  by  the  Frank  sovereigns — Charles 
invites  Paul  the  Deacon  to  his  court — The  schools  of  York — 
Its  library — Charles  invites  Alenin  to  his  court — The  literary 
courtiers — The  Chartulary  of  787 — The  new  Homilary — The 
popular  schools — Alcuin  returns  to  the  abbacy  of  St.  Martin 
at  Tours — Is  succeeded  in  the  Palatine  school  by  Clement  of 
Ireland — Charles's  encouragement  of  the  Palatine  scholars — 
Death  of  Alcuin — His  character — Charles's  literary  character. 

The  feature  of  Charles's  character  and  work  to 
which  the  historian  naturally  turns  with  the  greatest 
sympathy  is  his  love  of  learning  and  the  wise  and 
strenuous  encouragement  of  it  from  which  dates 
the  revival  of  letters  in  Europe. 

The  elegant  culture  of  which  the  letters  of 
Sidonius  have  given  us  so  charming  a  glimpse,  had 
long  since  died  out  of  the  countries  between  the 
Alps  and  the  English  Channel.  The  Imperial 
schools,  which  we  have  seen  still  existed  in  the 
towns  of  Gaul  in  the  time  of  the  grandsons  of 
Clovis,  had  fallen  into  neglect  and  decay.     If  the 


THE  REVIVAL  OF  LEARNING.        307 

Frank  conquerors  had  gradually  progressed  from 
their  original  barbarism,  the  civilization  of  the 
conquered  race  had  gradually  deteriorated  in  the 
midst  of  perpetual  war,  until  at  last,  about  the  time 
of  Charles  Martel,  the  whole  people  had  reached 
the  lowest  point  of  civilization  to  which  Gaul  had 
sunk  since  it  learnt  the  language  and  the  manners 
of  Rome. 

Letters  had  taken  refuge  in  the  monasteries; 
but  the  monastic  schools  did  not  fulfil  the  place  of 
the  old  Imperial  schools.  Pagan  literature  was 
very  naturally  disliked  and  discouraged  by  the 
Church,  and  the  schools  of  the  monasteries  took  a 
narrower  range. 

The  advantages  of  learning  were  indeed  recog- 
nized by  the  Frank  princes  fi'om  the  first,  and 
Clovis,  and  his  sons  and  grandsons,  encouraged  some 
of  their  young  nobility  to  qualify  themselves  for 
high  places  in  the  State  and  in  the  Church.  No 
doubt  Pepin  and  Carloman,  with  the  assistance  of 
Boniface,  in  regulating  and  reforming  the  Frankish 
Church,  did  something  to  encourage  learnintr. 
Pepin,  we  have  seen,  had  the  Italian  scholar,  Peter 
of  Pisa,  at  his  court  as  tutor  to  the  young  princes 
and  the  young  nobles  of  the  court.  But  the  adop- 
tion of  general  measures  to  revive  learning  through- 
out the  kingdom  was  the  work  of  Charlemagne,  and 
is  one  of  his  best  claims  to  the  gratitude  of  posterity. 

It  was  about  the  year  780  that  he  induced  an 
eminent  Lombard  scholar,  Paul  the  Deacon,  to  take 
up  his  residence  at  his  court,   and  to  undertake 


308  CHARLEMAGNE. 


the  instruction  of  all  who  chose  to  attend  his 
lectures.  In  the  following  year  he  met  with  the 
scholar  whose  name  is  more  especially  associated 
■with  that  of  Charles  in  the  revival  of  learning. 

It  was  at  Parma,  during  Charles's  expedition  to 
Italy,  that  a  group  of  Anglo-Saxon  ecclesiastics  were 
introduced  to  him,  who  had  been  to  Rome  to  fetch 
the  pallium  for  Eanbold,  the  newly  elected  Arch- 
bishop of  York.  Chief  of  them  was  Alcuin,  who 
held  the  honourable  office  of  master  of  the  schools 
of  York,  in  which  he  had  succeeded  the  new  arch- 
bishop. 

The  schools  of  Britain  and  Ireland  had  at  this 
time  a  considerable  reputation.  The  school  of 
York  was  one  of  the  most  famous  of  them.  Theo- 
dore of  Tarsus,  Archbishop  of  Canterbury,  and  the 
Abbot  Adrian,  the  companion  of  his  labours,  were 
both  men  of  considerable  learning,  and  they  had 
taken  pains  to  establish  schools  in  England.  Bede 
(673-735)  had  gained  for  himself  and  for  the 
Northumbrian  schools  a  European  reputation; 
Egbert,  his  scholar  and  friend,  had  maintained  the 
high  character  for  learning  of  the  school  of  York ; 
Egbert  had  been  the  master  of  Elbert,  and  Eanbold 
the  new  archbishop,  and  Alcuin,  had  been  school- 
feUovvs  under  Elbert.  AVhen  Elbert  succeeded 
Egbert  as  archbishop,  Eanbold  succeeded  Elbert  in 
the  schools ;  when  Eanbold  was  in  turn  raised  to 
the  see,  Alcuin  succeeded  him  as  scholasticus ;  so 
that  Alcuin  was  a  scholar  of  great  reputation,  and 
in  a  position  in  which  he  might  naturally  expect 


THE  REVIVAL  OF  LEARNING.        309 

to  succeed  in  his  tvirn  to  the  see  of  York.  The 
school  of  York  had  maintained  the  Roman  tradi- 
tions derived  from  its  founders ;  it  taught  the  theo- 
logy of  Augustine  a,pd  of  Gregory  the  Great,  and  it 
regarded  Rome  as  the  mother  of  Western  Chris- 
teTidom.* 

*  Alcuin  himself  has  left  behind  him  a  catalogue  of  the  books 
in  the  library  of  York,  which  is  a  very  interesting  monument  of 
the  state  of  literature  at  this  time": — 

"  Ulic  invenies  veterum  vestigia  Patrum, 
Quidquid  habet  pro  se  Latio  Eomauus  in  orbe, 
Graecia  vel  quidquid  transmisit  clara  Latinis : 
Hebraicus  vel  quod  populus  bibit  imbre  supemo, 
Africa  lucifluo  vel  quidquid  lumine  sparsit. 
Quod  Pater  Hieronymus,  quod  sensit  Hilarius.  atque 
Ambrosius,  prsesul,  simul  Augustinus,  et  ipse 
Sanctus  Athanasius,  Quod  Orosius  edit  avitus  : 
Quidquid  Gregorius  summus  docet,  et  Leo  papa ; 
Basilius  quidquid,  Fulgentius  atque  coruscant. 
Cassiodorus  item,  Chrysostomus  atque  Joannes. 
Quidquid  et  Althelmus  docuit,  quid  Beda  magister. 
Quss  Victorinus  scripsere,  Boetius :  atque 
Historic!  veteres  Pompeius,  Plinius,  ipse 
Aut  Aristoteles,  rhetor  quoque  Tullius  ingens. 
Quid  quoque  Sedulius,  vel  quid  canit  ipse  Juvencus, 
Alcinius  (?)  et  Clemens,  Prosper,  Paulinus,  Orator, 
Quid  Fortunatus,  vel  quid  Lactantius  edunt. 
Quod  Maro  Virgilius,  Statins  Lucanus,  et  Auctor : 
Artis  gi'ammaticse  vel  quid  scripsere  magistri ; 
Quid  Probus  atque  Phocas,  Donatus,  Priscianus  ve, 
Servius,  Eutichius,  Pompeius,  Commenianus. 
Invenies  alios  complures,  lector,  ibidem 
Egregios  studiis,  arte  et  sermone  magistros, 
Plurima  qui  claro  scripsere  volumina  sensu : 
Nomina  sed  quorum  prsesenti  in  carmine  scribi 
Longius  est  visum  quam  plectri  postulet  usus." 

(Migne,  101,  843.) 


310  CHARLEMAGNE. 


In  the  scholasticus  of  York,  King  Charles  re- 
cognized the  kind  of  man  he  needed  to  take  the 
lead  in  that  revival  of  leai*ning  on  which  he  was 
intent.  Alcuin  listened  to  his  proposals,  and  agreed 
to  accept  his  offers,  provided  that  when  he  reached 
England,  in  discharging  his  embassy,  the  arch- 
bishop and  the  Northumbrian  king  should  give 
their  consent ;  and  in  782  Alcuin  took  up  his  resi- 
dence at  the  court  of  the  King  of  the  Franks,  as 
master  of  the  Palatine  school.  The  king  gave  him 
two  abbeys  to  afford  him  an  income — one  near 
Troyes,  and  another,  Ferrieres,  in  the  diocese  of 
Sens — and  no  doubt  he  cared  for  the  well-being 
of  the  houses  from  which  he  derived  his  emolu- 
ments ;  but  his  duties  were  the  teaching  of  the 
Palatine  school,  and  the  promotion  of  education 
throughout  the  Frank  dominions.  The  king  at  this 
time  was  forty  years  of  age,  the  scholar  was  forty- 
seven. 

It  was  a  strangely  wandering  life  which  was 
led  by  the  court  of  the  great  Charles.  Wherever 
the  military  or  political  affairs  of  his  wide  dominions 
made  it  necessary  for  him  to  fix  his  residence  for 
a  few  months,  thither  his  wife  and  children,  his 
counsellors  and  secretaries,  in  short,  his  whole  court, 
accompanied  him, — now  in  Saxony,  now  in  Aqui- 
taine,  now  in  Lombardy,  now  on  the  banks  of  the 
Rhine. 

The  duties  of  the  master  of  the  Palatine  school 
were  very  much  the  same  as  those  of  the  master 
of  any  of  the  great  schools  of  the  period.     He  was 


THE  REVIVAL  OF  LEARNING.        311 

a  professor,  who  delivered  public  lectures.  But 
seeing  he  was  here  the  sole  professor,  he  had  to 
lecture  on  all  subjects  which  he  desired  that  his 
pupils  should  learn. 

Charles  himself  had  a  great  thirst  for  know- 
ledge, and  a  great  desire  to  encourage  learning. 
He  frequently  set  the  example  of  attending  the 
master's  lectures,  and  such  an  example  was  sure 
to  be  followed  by  all  who  desired  to  stand  well 
with  the  king.  Still  more  frequently  in  con- 
versation he  availed  himself  of  the  great  scholar's 
supposed  capability  of  solving  all  questions  on 
all  subjects.  We  take  leave  to  quote  a  few 
paragraphs,  which  place  the  scene  vividly  before 
us :  * — 

"  We  find  Charles  and  his  courtiers  plying  the 
Vates  from  across  the  Channel  with  innumerable 
questions,  often  blundering  strangely  and  misappre- 
hending wildly,  but  forming  a  circle  which  even  at 
this  lapse  of  time  it  is  impossible  to  contemplate 
without  interest.  The  monarch  himself,  in  the 
ardour  of  a  long  unsatisfied  curiosity,  propounding 
queries  on  aU  imaginable  topics ;  suggesting,  dis- 
tinguishing, objecting,  disputing ; — a  colossal  figure, 
gazing  fixedly  with  bright  blue  eyes  on  his  ad- 
mired guest,  and  altogether  a  presence  that  might 
well  have  disconcerted  a  less  assured  intellect. 
Alcuin,  however,  holding  fast  by  his  Boethius, 
Cassiodorus,  and  Isidorus,  is  calm  and  self-possessed  ; 

*  "The  Schools  of  Charles  the  Great,"  by  J.  B.  Mullinger. 
London,  1877. 


312  CHARLEMAGNE. 


feeling  assured  that  so  long  as  he  only  teaches  what 
'  Gregorius  summus '  and  '  Bseda  venerabilis '  be- 
lieved and  taught,  he  cannot  go  very  far  wrong. 
Around  him,  as  the  years  went  by,  he  saw  succes- 
sively appear  the  three  royal  sons,  bom  in  rightful 
wedlock  :  Charles,  the  future  ruler  of  Neustria  and 
Austrasia ;  Pepin,  the  acknowledged  lord  of  Italy ; 
and  Lewis,  who  almost  from  his  cradle  had  worn 
the  crown  of  Aquitaine, — the  graceful  young  ath- 
lete and  mighty  hunter,  his  mind  already  opening 
to  that  love  of  learning  which,  through  all  the  good 
and  evil  of  his  chequered  life,  he  cherished  so  fondly 
in  his  later  years.  There,  again,  was  Charles's 
much-loved  sister  Gisela,  Abbess  of  Chelles,  who 
from  her  girlhood  had  renounced  the  world,  but 
whom  the  fame  of  the  great  teacher  drew  fi'om  her 
conventual  retirement.  Thither  also  came  the  last 
and  best-loved  of  Charles's  wives,  Liutgarda,  of  the 
proud  Alemannic  race,  hereafter  to  prove  among  the 
fimiest  of  Alcuin's  friends  ;  and  the  royal  daughter, 
Gisela,  whose  parental  affection  held  her  too  dear  for 
the  proudest  alliance.  There,  too,  was  Charles's  son- 
in-law,  Angilbert,  chiefly  distinguished  as  yet  for 
his  fondness  for  the  histrionic  art,  but  afterwards 
the  saintly  Abbot  of  St.  Riquier.  There,  too,  were 
the  royal  cousins,  the  half-brothers  Adelhard  and 
Wala,  whose  after  action  shook  the  whole  fabric  of 
the  Carolingian  Empire.  There,  too,  was  Riculfus, 
destined  ere  long  to  fill  the  chair  of  St.  Boniface 
and  rule  the  great  see  of  Mayence ;  Eginhard,  the 
royal  biographer,  the  classic  of  the  ninth  century ; 


THE  REVIVAL   OF   LEAENING.  313 

and  Fredegis,  Alcuin's  youthful  countryman,  poet, 
and  philosopher,  not  always  faithful  to  his  master's 
teaching. 

"  It  appears  to  have  been  a  frequent  affectation  in 
mediseval  times  for  distinguished  men  to  assume  a 
literaiy  or  historic  alias;  and  to  this  custom  we 
must  attribute  the  fact  that  Alcuin  usually  in  his 
correspondence  addresses  the  members  of  this  circle 
under  another  name.  Charles's  second  name  would 
seem  to  have  reaUy  been  David,  and  this  fact  may 
account  for  the  assumption  of  scriptural  names  by 
some  of  his  courtiers.  Pepin  was  Julius;  Gisela 
(the  sister),  Lucia;  Gisela  (the  daughter),  Delia; 
Queen  Liutgarda  was  Ava ;  Adelhard  was  Antony  ; 
Wala,  Ai-senius  ;  Eginhard,  with  reference  perhaps  to 
his  destined  state  avocation,  was  Besaleel ;  Riculfus, 
Flavius  Damoetus ;  Rigbod,  Machairas  ;  Angilbert, 
Homer ;  Fredigis,  Nathanael." 

There  appears,  however,  little  to  support  the 
popular  idea  of  a  regular  Athenseum,  or  academy 
of  adult  members  of  Charles's  court. 

For  the  first  five  years  after  Alcuin's  arrival 
(782-787)  the  mind  of  the  king  was  occupied  with 
the  wars  in  which  he  was  incessantly  engaged ;  but 
when,  in  785,  Witikind  laid  dowTi  his  arms  and 
embraced  Christianity,  Charles  had  more  leisure  to 
turn  to  the  designs  of  peace.  During  his  residence 
at  Rome,  in  the  winter  of  786-7,  Charles  had  secured 
in  the  capital  of  Western  learning  several  teachers 
of  repute,  whom,  on  his  return,  he  distributed 
among  the  principal  Frank  monasteries  to  aid  in 


314  CHARLEMAGNE. 


the  work  of  educational  revival.  Shortly  after  he 
issued  the  famous  capitulary  of  A.D.  787.  The  copy 
which  has  been  preserved  is  that  addressed  to  the 
Abbot  of  Fulda  :— 

"  Charles,  by  the  grace  of  God  King  of  the 
Franks  and  of  the  Lombards,  and  Patrician  of  the 
Romans,  to  Bangulfus  Abbot,  and  to  his  whole  con- 
gregation, and  to  the  faithful  committed  to  his 
charge  : 

"  Be  it  known  to  your  Devotion,  pleasing  to  God, 
that  in  conjunction  with  our  faithful  we  have 
judged  it  to  be  of  utility  that  in  the  bishoprics  and 
monasteries  committed  by  Christ's  favour  to  our 
charge,  care  should  be  taken  that  there  shall  be 
not  only  a  regular  manner  of  life  and  one  conform- 
able to  holy  religion,  but  also  the  study  of  letters, 
each  to  teach  and  learn  them  according  to  his 
ability  and  the  Divine  assistance.  For  even  as  due 
observance  of  the  rule  of  the  house  tends  to  good 
morals,  so  zeal  on  the  part  of  the  teacher  and  the 
taught  imparts  order  and  grace  to  sentences ;  and 
those  who  seek  to  please  God  by  living  aright, 
should  also  not  neglect  to  please  Him  by  right 
speaking.  It  is  written,  '  By  thine  own  words  shalt 
thou  be  justified  or  condemned ; '  and  although 
right  doing  may  be  preferable  to  right  speaking, 
yet  must  the  knowledge  of  what  is  right  precede 
right  action.  Every  one,  therefore,  should  strive 
to  understand  what  it  is  that  he  would  fain  accom- 
plish ;  and  this  right  understanding  will  be  the 
sooner  gained,  according  as  the  utterances  of  the 


THE  REVIVAL  OF  LEARNING.        315 

tongue  are  free  from  error.  And  if  false  speaking 
is  to  be  shunned  by  all  men,  especially  should  it  be 
shunned  by  those  who  have  elected  to  be  the 
servants  of  the  truth.  During  past  years  we  have 
often  received  letters  fi'om  different  monasteries, 
informing  us  that  at  their  sacred  services  the 
brethren  offered  up  prayers  on  our  behalf;  and  we 
have  obsei'ved  that  the  thoughts  contained  in  these 
letters,  though  in  themselves  most  just,  were  ex- 
pressed in  uncouth  language,  and  while  pious 
devotion  dictated  the  sentiments,  the  unlettered 
tongue  was  unable  to  express  them  aright !  Hence 
there  has  arisen  in  our  minds  the  fear  lest,  if  the 
skill  to  write  rightly  were  thus  lacking,  so  too  would 
the  power  of  rightly  comprehending  the  Holy 
Scriptures  be  far  less  than  was  fitting ;  and  we  all 
know  that  though  verbal  eiTors  be  dangerous, 
en'ors  of  the  understanding  are  yet  more  so.  We 
exhort  you,  therefore,  not  only  not  to  neglect  the 
study  of  letters,  but  to  apply  yourselves  thereto 
with  perseverance,  and  with  that  humility  which  is 
well  pleasing  to  God,  so  that  you  may  be  able  to 
penetrate  with  greater  ease  and  certainty  the 
mysteries  of  the  Holy  Scriptures.  For  as  these  con- 
tain images,  tropes,  and  similar  figures,  it  is  impos- 
sible to  doubt  that  the  reader  will  aiTive  far  more 
readily  at  the  spiritual  sense  according  as  he  is  the 
better  instructed  in  learning.  Let  there,  therefore, 
be  chosen  for  this  work  men  who  are  both  able 
and  willing  to  learn,  and  also  desirous  of  instructing 
others ;  and  let  them  apply  themselves  to  the  work 


316  CHARLEMAGNE. 


with  a  zeal  equalling  the  eamestpess  wi^h  which 
we  recommend  it  to  them. 

"  It  is  our  wish  that  you  may  be  what  it  behoves 
the  soldiers  of  the  Chvu'ch  to  be, — religious  ij).  heart, 
learned  in  discourse,  pure  in  act,  eloquent  in  speech  ; 
so  that  aU  who  approach  your  house  in  order  to 
invoke  the  Pivine  Master,  o^  to  behpld  the  excel- 
lence of  the  religious  life,  may  be  edified  in  behold- 
ing you,  and  instructed  in  hearing  you  discourse  or 
chant,  ancl  may  return  home  rendering  thanks  to 
God  most  High. 

"  Fail  not,  as  thou  regardest  our  favour,  to  send  a 
copy  of  this  letter  to  all  thy  suffragans,  and  to  all 
the  monasteries ;  and  let  no  monk  go  beyond  his 
monastery  to  administer  jnstice,  or  to  enter  the 
assemblies  and  the  voting-places.     Adieu." 

This  capitulary  appears  to  have  been  issued  from 
Augsburg,  where  he  had  just  received  the  submis- 
sion of  the  rebellious  TassUo. 

It  was  probably  some  time  after  this  that  Charles 
sent  round  to  the  Churches  a  homilary  or  collec- 
tion of  sermons,  corrected  by  the  hand  of  Paulus 
Diaconus  (at  that  time  probably  engaged  in 
teaching  at  Metz),  accompanied  by  the  following 
instructions : — 

"  Desirous  as  we  are  of  improving  the  condition 
of  the  Churches,  we  impose  upon  ourselves  the  task 
of  reviving  with  the  utmost  zeal  the  study  of 
letters,  weU-nigh  extinguished  through  the  neglect 
of  our  ancestors.  We  charge  all  our  subjects,  as 
far  as  they  may  be  able,  to  cultivate  the  liberal 


THE  KEVrV^AL   OF  LEARNING.  3lt 

arts,  and  we  set  them  the  example.  We  have 
akeady,  God  helping,  carefuUy  coiTected  the  books 
of  the  Old  and  New  Testaments,  corrupted  through 
the  ignorance  of  transcribers.  And  inasmuch  as 
the  collection  of  homilies  for  the  service  at  Noc- 
tunas  was  full  of  errors  .  .  .  we  have  willed  that 
these  same  should  be  revised  and  corrected  by  Paul 
the  Deacon,  our  well-beloved  client ;  and  he  has 
presented  us  with  readings  adapted  to  every  feast- 
day,  carefully  purged  from  error,  and  sufficing  for 
a  whole  year." 

Two  yeai-s  after  the  appearance  of  the  famous 
capitulary  of  787,  Theodulphus,  Bishop  of  Orleans, 
one  of  the   Missi   Dominici,  and  who  appeai-s  to 
have  succeeded  Alcuin,  on  his  retii'ement  to  Toui-s, 
as  a  kind  of  "  minister  of  education,"  addressed  a 
document  to  the  clergy  of  his  diocese,  which  ap- 
pears to  have  been  widely  adopted  in  other  dioceses, 
in  which  he  describes  study  as  "  a  means  whereby 
the  life  of  the  righteous  is  ennobled,  and  the  man 
himself  fortified  against  temptation."     In  this,  he 
requires  his  clergy  to  open  schools  in  every  town 
and   village   of  his   diocese,  and   to   receive   "  the 
children  of  the  faithful "  for  instruction,  demanding 
in  return  no  payment,  though  permitted  to  accept 
a  gift  spontaneously  offered.     Theodulphus  himself 
was  one  of  the  cluster  of  learned  men  about  the 
Frankish  court.     The  library  of  his  cathedral  was 
famous  for  the  number  and  beauty  of  the  manu- 
scripts he  had  gathered  together.     He  has  left  us 
one  monument  at  least  which  has  in  our  days,  in  a 


318  CHARLEMAGNE. 


tmnslation,  obtained  a  new  popularity — the  hymn 
"  Gloria  Laus  et  Tibi  Honor  "— 

"  All  glory,  laud,  and  honour 
To  Thee,  Redeemer,  King,"  etc. 

In  the  year  795,  the  abbacy  of  Tours  became 
vacant.  It  was,  perhaps,  the  wealthiest  of  all  the 
preferments  in  the  wide  dominions  of  Charles.  The  " 
Archbishop  of  Toledo,  in  a  controversy  with  Alcuin, 
made  it  a  subject  of  reproach,  that  as  Abbot  of 
Tours  he  was  the  master  of  20,000  slaves — the  serfs 
upon  his  wide  domains. 

Here  Alcuin  continued  his  labours  as  teacher. 
He  sent  some  of  his  monks  to  England  to  bring 
back  books  for  the  abbey  library.  Scholars  flocked 
to  him  from  all  parts  of  the  Frankish  dominions, 
and  many  from  his  native  England.  He  continued 
to  correspond  with  the  king,*  and  continued  to 
exercise  a  great  influence  on  the  literary  progress 
of  the  kingdom. 

He  was  immediately  succeeded  in  the  mastership 
of  the  Palatine  school  by  Witzo,  who  had  accom- 
panied him  from  York ;  and  he,  after  a  short  time 
by  Fredegis,  another  scholar  of  York.  But  within 
about  two  years  there  arrived  from  Ireland  two 
men,  in  secular  learning  and  in  the  Sacred  Scriptures 
incomparably  learned,t  named  Clement  and  Albinus, 
and  they  seem  to  have  eclipsed  Alcuin  and  his 
disciples  in  the  regard  of  Charles. 

*  Among  his  scholars  of  this  period  were  Baban  Maur,  Hajmo, 
and  other  eminent  men  of  the  next  generation, 
t  The  Monk  of  St.  Gall,  1.  I. 


THE  REVIVAL  OF  LEARNING.        319 

The  scholars  of  the  Celtic  school  seem  indeed  to 
have  had  some  advantages  over  the  scholars  of  the 
school  of  York.      We  have  seen  that  Alcuin  and 
his  school  walked  along  the  narrow  path  of  Augus- 
tinian  theology  and  Roman  tradition.     The  Celtic 
scholars   were   familiar   with   the    Greek   Fathers. 
Manuscripts  of  Origen   and  other  Greek  authors, 
written   in   the   beautiful   character  distinctive   of 
the  Celtic  school  of  caligraphy,  long  remained  at 
Luxeuil,  St.  Gall,  and  Bobbio,  the  great  foundations 
of  Columbanus,  which  long  maintained  their  Celtic 
traditions.      They  were,  by  temperament  as  well 
as  by  training,  more  speculative  than  the  steady 
Saxons.      Clement   appears,   also,   to   have    had   a 
greater   acquaintance   with    natural    science    than 
Alcuin.     In  one  of  Charles's  letters  to  Alcuin,  we 
find  that  Clement  had   given   some    different  ex- 
planation of  astronomical   phenomena  from   those 
which  Alcuin  had  previously  given.     Charles  ex- 
presses the  hope  that  he   will   not   be   too   proud 
to   admit   that   he   was  wrong   if   he   sees   reason 
to   think    so.      It    is   interesting    to    find   Alcuin 
quoting,  with   reference  to  Clement,  Virgil's  story 
of  Dares  and  Entellus,  which  Jerome  had  quoted 
when  Augustine  opened  a  controversy  with  him.* 
AVe  find  the  influence  of  these  new  Celtic  teachers 
opposed  also  by  Theodulphus,  Bishop  of  Orleans, 
and    Benedict    of    Aniane,   whose    character    and 
abilities  gave  great  weight  to  his  opinions  on  all 

*  "  The  Fathers  for  English  Readers,"  S.P.C.K. :  Jerome,  p.  216  ; 
Augustine,  p.  130. 


320  CHAKLEMAGNE. 


theological  questions.  On  the  other  hand,  Clement 
and  his  companions,  if  viewed  with  suspicion  at 
Tours,  and  in  the  cell  by  the  Anianus,  and  at 
Orleans,  would  find  sympathy  and  support  in  the 
great  monasteiy  of  Luxeuil  and  in  its  daughter- 
house  of  St.  Gall,  which  were  among  the  most 
famous  of  the  religious  communities  of  the  time. 
It  is  from  the  monk  of  St.  Gall  that  we  have 
several  stories  about  Clement,  one  of  which  is 
worth  transcribing,  as  an  illustration  of  Charles's 
encouragement  of  learning  among  the  young  men 
of  his  court. 

On  his  return  from  Italy  (probably  the  expedi- 
tion of  A.D.  786-7),  Charles  called  before  him  the 
youths  who  had  been  under  Clement's  instructions, 
and  found  those  of  the  middle  and  lower  class  more 
advanced  than  those  of  the  noble  class.  Charles, 
with  gracious  looks  and  kind  words,  encouraged 
the  former  to  persevere  in  their  studies,  promising 
them  noble  sees  and  abbeys  as  their  reward.  Then 
he  turned  to  the  others,  and  thundering  at  tliem 
rather  than  speaking  to  them,  he  reproached  them 
with  trusting  to  their  noble  birth  and  riches  and 
good  looks,  and  neglecting  his  orders  and  their  own 
glorification,  postponing  their  studies  to  luxury  and 
play,  idleness  and  useless  exercises.  Lifting  his 
august  head  and  unconquered  right  hand  to  heaven, 
he  swore,  with  his  accustomed  oath,  by  the  King 
of  Heaven,  "  I  do  not  care  much  for  your  nobility 
and  your  good  looks,  though  others  admire  you; 
be  sure  of  this,  that  unless  you  speedily  repair  your 


THE  REVIVAL  OF   LEARNING.  321 

former  negligence  by  diligent  study,  you  shall  never 
get  any  good  fi-om  Charles."  * 

We  return,  for  a  moment,  to  our  countryman 
Alcuin.  The  king  invited  him  to  accompany  him 
in  the  journey  to  Rome,  in  which  he  received  the 
Imperial  crown  and  title,  but  ill  health  prevented 
the  Abbot  of  Tours  from  being  present  with  his 
master  on  that  memorable  occasion.  The  last  two 
years  of  his  life,  his  gi'owing  infirmities  led  him 
to  devolve  much  of  the  business  of  his  great  and 
laborious  position  upon  others,  while  he  continued 
his  devotions  and  his  studies,  and  awaited  his  end. 
He  had  been  accustomed  to  express  a  wish  that 
he  might  depart  this  life  on  the  festival  of  Pente- 
cost ;  and  so  it  came  to  pass.  He  died  on  the  day 
of  Pentecost,  in  the  year  a.d.  804. 

The  sense  of  the  signal  service  rendered  by 
Alcuin  to  his  age  must  not  lead  us  to  exaggerate 
his  merits  or  powers.  He  was  a  scholar,  one  of 
the  foremost  scholars  of  his  age ;  and,  through  the 
wise  and  powerful  patronage  of  Charles,  he  was 
instrumental  in  doing  much  for  the  revival  of 
learning  on  the  continent  of  Europe,  when  it  had 
fallen  to  its  lowest  point  of  neglect.  He  was  a 
vigorous  upholder  of  the  faith,  and  he  exhibited 
the  example  of  a  pure  and  blameless  life  in  the 
midst  of  a  rude  and  licentious  court.  But,  as  a 
scholar,  he  had  nothing  of  genius ;  he  was  merely  the 
painstaking  teacher  of  the  traditions  of  his  school. 
The  plans  for  the  extension  of  learning,  of  which 
*  Monk  of  St.  Gall,  i,  3. 

Y 


S-22  CHARLEMAGNE. 


he  was  a  chief  agent,  were  those  of  Charles.  He  left 
no  work  of  genius,  like  Eginhard's  Life,  or  Theodul- 
phus's  Hymn.  There  was  no  heroic  spirit  of  self- 
devotion,  like  that  of  Columbanus  or  Boniface.  He 
was  in  his  place  as  master  of  the  school  of  York  ; 
he  might,  like  his  predecessors  in  that  office,  have 
risen  to  be  Archbishop  of  York;  he  accepted  Charles's 
invitation  to  be  master  of  his  Palatine  school,  and 
he  was  recompensed  with  the  abbacy  of  Tours. 

Of  Charles's  own  literary  attainments  it  is  diffi- 
cult to  speak.  On  one  hand  we  are  told  that  he 
spoke  Latin  fluently  and  forcibly,  that  he  under- 
stood Greek,  that  he  had  an  insatiable  thirst  for 
knowledge,  and  was  industrious  in  its  acquisition. 
The  authorship  of  the  hymn  "  Yeni  Creator  Spiritus  " 
is  attributed  to  him.  He  ordered  a  collection  to  be 
made  of  the  Teutonic  ballads  which  had  come  down 
from  old  times.  He  was  correcting  the  Latin 
version  of  the  New  Testament  by  reference  to  the 
Greek  at  the  time  of  his  death.  Yet  we  are  told 
that,  not  having  learned  the  ai-t  of  wiiting  in  youth, 
he  in  vain  tried  to  acquire  it  in  manhood,  though 
he  took  persevering  pains  to  do  so.  It  is  probably 
an  error  on  our  part  to  overlook  the  many  evidences 
with  which  history  supplies  us,  that  a  good  memory 
and  a  strong  understanding  will  enable  a  man  to 
acquire  an  amount  of  knowledge  and  an  intellectual 
training  which  we  think  unattainable  by  a  man 
who  does  not  possess  our  keys  to  learning — the  axis 
of  readinfj  and  writinrr. 


C     323     ) 


CHAPTER  XXIII. 

THE   ECCLESIASTICAL  WOEK   OF  CH.\JILES. 

Charles's  ecclesiastical  policy — His  Chiirch  patronage — Anecdotes 
— Policy  towards  the  Roman  See — The  iconoclastic  contro- 
versy— The  Caroline  Books — The  theological  tone  of  the  age 
— The  Adoptionist  controversy — The  Council  of  Frankfort — 
The  history  of  the  Filioque. 

The  religious  side  of  Charles's  character  is  of  the 
greatest  interest  in  the  study  of  his  remarkable 
character  as  a  whole,  and  his  religious  policy  led  to 
the  most  important  and  durable  results  of  his  reign. 
He  inherited  an  ecclesiastical  policy  from  his 
father ;  the  policy  of  regulating  and  strengthening 
the  influence  of  the  Church  in  his  dominions  as  the 
chief  agent  of  civilization,  and  a  great  means  of 
binding  the  various  elements  of  the  empire  into 
one;  the  policy  of  accepting  the  Bishop  of  Rome 
as  the  head  of  Western  Christianity,  with  patri- 
archal authority  over  all  its  Churches. 

We  have  seen  that  he  required  the  bishops  and 
abbots  to  maintain  the  sacred  buildings   in   their 


324  CHAELEMAGNE. 


guardianship  in  good  repair.  The  Domkirche  at  Aix 
is  the  principal  ecclesiastical  building  which  he 
himself  erected.  We  have  seen  that  he  diligently 
attended  the  services  of  the  Church,  took  gi-eat 
interest  in  the  details  of  the  service,  and  interfered 
personally  in  their  conduct. 

He  seems  to  have  taken  completely  into  his  own 
hands  the  nomination  to  all  the  bishoprics  and 
abbeys,  and,  having  a  sincere  desire  for  the  efficiency 
of  the  Church,  his  appointments  were  usually  good. 
We  have  no  charges  that  he  received  presents  from 
candidates  for  his  patronage.  Still,  he  allowed 
those  about  him  to  solicit  patronage  for  their 
friends  and  dependents  ;  and  he  sometimes  selected 
his  nominees  in  a  way  which  savours  of  caprice. 
We  will  only  relate  one  of  the  anecdotes  of  the 
monk  of  St.  Gall  in  illustration  of  the  subject. 

On  one  occasion,  when  it  was  announced  to  him 
that  one  of  the  bishops  had  died,  Charles  asked 
whether,  out  of  his  goods  or  labours,  he  had  sent 
anything  before  him  ("  utrum  de  rebus  vel  laboribus 
suis  ante  se  prsemitteret  aliquam").  The  messenger, 
apparently  misunderstanding  the  question,  and 
thinking  the  king  asked  how  much  the  bishop  had 
left  behind  him,  answered,  "  Not  more  than  two 
pounds  of  silver."  A  young  clerk  of  the  king's 
chapel,  who  happened  to  be  standing  by,  muttered 
in  a  low  tone  to  liimself,  "  A  small  viaticum  for  so 
long  a  journey."  Charles  overheard,  and  said  to 
him,  "  Do  you  think,  if  you  received  the  see,  you 
would  take  care  to  make  better  provision  for  that 


THE   ECCLESIASTICAL   WORK   OF   CHARLES.     325 

long  journey  ? "  The  clerk,  swallowing  the  words 
like  premature  grapes  falling  into  a  gaping  mouth, 
fell  at  his  feet  and  said,  "  My  lord,  that  depends  on 
the  will  of  God  and  your  power."  The  king  bade 
him  stand  behind  the  curtain  which  was  behind  his 
chair,  and  he  would  hear  how  many  suitors  he  had 
for  that  honour.  The  news  of  the  vacancy  had 
become  known  in  the  palace,  and  there  came  a 
number  of  the  courtiers  begging  for  it  for  one  man 
and  for  another.  The  Queen  Hildegardis  first  sent 
a  message,  and  then  came  herself,  to  beg  for  the 
vacant  see  for  her  own  clerk;  and  the  monk  laugh- 
ingly records  the  honeyed  phrases  with  which  the 
beautiful  queen  asked  her  boon  of  her  mighty 
spouse  :  "  Sweetest  lord,  my  king,  my  glory  and  my 
refuge  "  ("  Domine  dulcissime,  mi  rex,  gloria  mea  et 
refugium  meum  ").  The  clerk  felt  that  his  grapes 
were  very  likely  to  be  intercepted  before  they  could 
fall  into  his  mouth,  and  said  from  behind  the 
curtain,  "  Lord  king,  hold  fast  your  courage,  and 
let  not  any  one  wrest  from  your  hands  the  power 
which  God  has  entrusted  to  them  "  ("  Domine  rex, 
tene  fortitudinem  tuam,  ne  potestatem  a  Deo  tibi 
collatam  de  manibus  tuis  quisquam  extorqueat "). 
Then  the  most  strong  lover  of  truth  (so  he  calls 
Charles)  called  the  clerk  out  from  behind  the 
curtain  before  all,  and  said  to  him,  "  Take  that  see, 
and  provide  diligently  that  you  send  greater  ex- 
penditure and  a  viaticum  for  the  long  and  irre- 
vocable journey  before  thyself  and  before  me."  * 
*  Lib.  i.  c,  4. 


326  CHARLEMAGNE, 


Charles's  assumption  of  the  patronage  of  the  sees 
and  abbeys  of  his  dominions  was  indefensible  in 
theory,  submitted  to  because  it  could  not  be  resisted, 
and  made  tolerable  by  appointments  which  were 
for  the  most  part  good.  That  it  was  considered  an 
irregularity  and  a  grievance,  is  shown  by  the  fact 
that  when  Louis  the  Pious  succeeded  to  the  throne 
and  published  edicts  for  the  better  regulation  of  the 
discipline  of  the  Church,  he  restored  the  right  of 
canonical  election. 

The  policy  of  Charles  towards  the  see  of  Rome 
was  a  continuation  of  that  already  inaugurated  by 
his  father.  He  maintained  the  Bishop  of  Rome  in 
the  possession  of  the  temtories  which  Pepin  had 
added  to  the  endowments  of  the  see,  and  even 
made  some  considerable  additions  to  them  from 
time  to  time.  The  Bishop  of  Rome  held  these 
possessions  of  his  see  on  the  same  conditions  as  all 
the  rest — the  same  conditions  on  which  the  bishops 
of  Gaul  held  the  landed  endowments  of  their  sees. 
He  exercised  a  virtual  lordship  over  them,  subject 
to  the  sovereign  authority.  The  authority  of  the 
bishop  over  the  possessions  of  his  see,  is  to  be  dis- 
tinguished from  the  authority  which  he  possessed 
as  the  most  wealthy  and  powerful  man  in  Rome, 
who  had  thereby  attained  to  the  political  leader- 
ship of  the  Respxiblica  Romana.  Ultimately  they 
became  confounded.  But  when  the  Bishop  of  Rome 
accepted  from  Pepin  the  exarchate  of  Ravenna  and 
tlie    Pentapolis    as    endowments    of   his   see,   the 


THE   ECCLESIASTICAL   WORK   OF   CHARLES.     327 

Roman  Republic  still  continued  to  acknowledge  the 
Eastern  emperor  as  its  sovereign.  It  was  not  until 
Leo  placed  the  crown  on  the  head  of  Charles,  at  the 
Christmas  festival  of  800,  that  the  Roman  Republic 
formally  withdrew  its  allegiance  from  the  Eastern 
emperor;  and  by  the  same  act  it  acknowledged  a 
similar  sovereignty  in  the  newly  elected  emperor  of 
the  West,  and  the  pope  and  the  magnates  of  Rome 
did  homage  to  Chai'les  as  their  political  lord.  It 
was  when,  under  the  successors  of  Charles,  his 
empire  fell  in  pieces,  and  each  great  division  asserted 
its  independence,  that  the  bishops  of  Rome,  like  the 
rest,  were  able  to  assert  a  practical  independence — 
still,  however,  subject  in  theory  to  Imperial  rights, 
which  a  strong  emperor,  in  some  special  conjuncture, 
from  time  to  time  found  himself  able  to  enforce. 

From  the  edict  of  Leo  the  Isaurian  (a.d.  724), 
the  prohibition  of  images  in  the  Eastern  Church 
had  been  maintained  by  successive  emperors,  till 
the  Council  of  Nicsea,  780,  when  the  use  and  adora- 
tion of  pictures  (not  statues)  was  restored,  and 
the  long  schism  which  had  existed  on  this  subject 
between  the  East  and  West  was  terminated. 

The  Pope  Adiian,  on  receiving  the  acts  of  the 
Nicene  Council,  communicated  a  copy  to  the 
Frankish  Church,  clearly  anticipating  that  the  de- 
cision of  a  so-called  general  council  would  be  ac- 
cepted by  the  Franks.  But  the  Churches  north  of 
the  Alps  appear  never  to  have  fallen  into  the  abuse  of 
images,  which  had  grown  up  in  the  Churches  of  the 


328  CHARLEMAGNE. 


East  and  of  Italy.  And  the  customs  and  convictions 
of  these  Churches  made  them  unwilling  to  accept 
the  decisions  arrived  at  in  the  synod  of  Nicaea. 
Charles  sent  the  decisions  of  the  synod  to  Alcuin, 
who  was  then  on  a  visit  to  England,  and  it  is  said 
that  the  English  bishops  joined  in  desiring  their 
illustrious  countryman  to  write  against  the  council. 
Alcuin  wrote  some  remarks,  in  the  form  of  a  letter 
to  Charlemagne ;  others  of  the  Frankish  divines  are 
said  to  have  also  written  on  the  subject.  Out  of 
these  writings  grew  a  treatise  in  four  books,  known 
as  the  Caroline  Books,  because  the  king  took  a 
kind  of  editorial  part  in  the  compilation,  and 
finally  put  the  book  forth  in  his  own  name.  The 
tone  of  the  book  is  firm  and  dignified.  Great 
deference  for  the  Apostolic  See  is  professed,  but 
the  views  of  the  Frankish  Church  are  resolutely 
maintained, — that  the  use  of  images  for  the  orna- 
mentation of  churches,  and  as  historical  memorials, 
is  allowable  and  laudable,  but  that  adoration  of 
them  is  superstitious  and  to  be  forbidden.  The 
views,  both  of  the  worshipped  of  images  and  of 
the  breakers  of  images,  are  unsparingly  criticized. 
Adrian  sent  a  long  reply  to  the  king's  book,  but 
his  arguments  are  feeble ;  his  tone  seems  to  show 
both  a  sense  of  the  weakness  of  his  cause  and  a 
fear  of  ofiending  the  king. 

The  general  tendency  of  the  theology  of  the  age 
was  to  follow  with  implicit  trust  the  system  of 
doctrine  which  the  genius  of  Augustine  had  recom- 


THE   ECCLESIASTICAL  WOEK   OF   CHARLES.     329 

mended  to  Latin  Christendom.  Gregory  the  Great 
is  the  chief  link  of  transition  between  the  period  of 
the  Fathers  and  the  mediseval  period,  and  he  chiefly 
follows  Augustine.  Isidore  of  Seville  (595-636),  a 
large  and  intelligent  contributor  to  the  literatui-e 
of  Spain,  in  his  theological  writings  transcribes 
Augustine  and  Gregory.  Bede  (672-735)  has  no 
theological  originality ;  he  follows  the  Fathers,  and 
especially  Augustine ;  Egbert  of  York,  and  Alcuin 
foUow,  without  any  originality  of  thought,  the 
teaching  of  their  school. 

The  great  controversy,  which  disturbed  the  theo- 
logical serenity  of  the  age  of  Charles,  sprang  up  in 
Spain,  whose  Church,  though  not  oppressed  by  the 
dominant  race,  yet  lay  under  such  disadvantages 
that  we  should  hardly  have  expected  to  find  in  it 
any  exceptional  originality  of  thought.  Felix, 
Bishop  of  Urzel,  a  town  on  the  south  side  of  the 
Pyrenees,  in  the  country  subject  to  the  Frank 
monarchy,  was  the  most  able  teacher  of  the  new 
opinions;  Elipandus,  Ai-chbishop  of  Toledo,  the 
first  see  of  the  Spanish  Church,  was  their  most 
prominent  and  ardent  partisan.  The  system  of 
doctrine  which  Felix  of  Urzel  taught  seems  to 
have  had  many  points  of  likeness  to  that  of  the 
Antiochean  school  of  the  fifth  century,  Avhich  was 
condemned  in  the  third  general  council  at  Ephesus. 
It  may  have  been  derived  from  a  study  of  the 
Syrian  writers  of  that  time,  such  as  Theodore  of 
Mopsuestia ;  or  Felix  may  have  come  to  something 
of  the  same  conclusions  from  approaching  the  sub- 


330  CHARLEMAGNE. 


ject  of  the  divinity  of  Christ  from  the  same  side 
and  in  the  same  spirit — the  spirit  of  rational 
inquuy,  giving  prominence  to  that  which  in  the 
Person  of  Christ  answers  to  the  analogy  of  human 
nature.  The  general  result  was  a  sort  of  revived 
Nestorianism — a  lowering  down  of  the  doctrine  of 
Christ's  divinity.*  As  in  the  Nestorian  controversy 
the  word  Theotokos  had  been  forced  into  imdue  im- 
portance, and  taken  as  the  keyword  of  the  con- 
troversy, so  now  the  phrases  "adopted  son"  and 
"adopticni"  gave  a  title  to  the  whole  tjrpe  of 
doctrine,  and  the  controversy  is  known  as  the 
Adoptionist  controversy. 

The  controversy  was  conducted  with  great  acri- 
mony in.  Spain,  each  side  denouncing  the  other 
as  unworthy  of  the  name  of  Christian.  From 
Spain  it  spread  into  the  Frank  Empire,  disturbing 
the  minds  and  unsettling  the  faith  of  many. 
Charles  caused  the  question  to  be  considered  by 
an  assembly  convened  at  Regensburg,  in  the  year 
A.D.  792.  Felix  of  Urzel,  his  see  being  under  the 
metropolitan  jurisdiction  of  Narbonne,  was  cited 
to  appear  before  the  council.  His  doctrine  was 
condenmed,  and  he  consented  to  a  recantation. 
The  king  thereupon  sent  him  to  Rome,  where  his 
explanation  was  not  considered  satisfactory,  and 
he  consented  to  a  further  recantation.  But  on  his 
return  home  he  betook  himself  to  the  adjoining 
part  of  Spain,  which  was  under  the  Moorish 
dominion,  where  he  could  express  his  real  opinions 

*  Neander,  "  Church  History,"  vol.  v.  p.  215,  etc.    BoLn's  ecL 


THE  ECCLESIASTICAL  WOEK  OF   CHARLES.     331 

without  fear  of  persecution,  and  withdrew  his  re- 
cantations. Upon  this  Elipand  and  other  Spanish 
bishops  wrote  two  letters,  one  to  Charles  and  another 
to  the  Frankish  bishops,  defending  Adoptionism ; 
and  they  proposed  a  re-examination  of  the  question, 
with  a  view  to  the  reinstatement  of  Felix  in  his 
see.  These  letters  the  king  sent  to  Pope  Adrian 
for  his  information ;  but  without  waiting  for  any 
expression  of  opinion  from  him,  he  brought  the 
matter  before  a  council  at  Frankfort-on-the-Main, 
in  August  15th,  794. 

It  Avas  an  assembly  not  unworthy  to  be  compared 
with  the  earlier  councils  of  the  Western  Church. 
Three  hundred  bishops  were  assembled,  from  Gaul, 
Germany,  Lombardy,  with  some  representatives  of 
the  English  Church,  and  two  legates  from  the 
Bishop  of  Kome.  Alcuin  was  also  admitted  to  a 
place,  at  the  king's  suggestion,  on  account  of  the 
service  which  his  learning  might  be  able  to  render. 
The  meetings  were  held  in  the  great  hall  of  the 
palace.  Charles,  like  Constantine  at  Nicaea,  assisted 
at  the  council,  and  opened  the  proceedings  with  an 
address.  Paulinus  of  Aquilsea,  who  was  himself 
present,  tells  us  "the  venerable  prince  rose  from 
his  throne,  and  from  the  elevation  of  the  dais  he 
pronounced  a  long  address  upon  the  interests  of 
religion  which  were  in  question.  He  concluded 
thus  :  '  It  is  for  you  to  pronounce.  Since  the  time, 
already  far  past,  when  the  plague  arose,  its  Aaolence 
has  not  ceased  to  increase,  and  the  contagion  of 
the  error  has  spread  to  the  frontiei*s  of  my  kingdom. 


332  CHARLEMAGNE. 


It  is  necessary,  then,  to  take  steps  to  suppress  it, 
by  a  precise  definition  of  the  faith.' "  Then  some 
days  were  given  to  the  assembled  Fathers  in  which 
to  give  in  their  opinions  in  Avi'iting ;  and  not  one 
defender  of  Adoptionism  was  found  among  them. 

The  question  of  the  worship  of  images  was  also 
laid  before  the  assembly  for  its  decision,  and  was 
dealt  with  in  a  way  which  showed  that  the  council 
was  no  more  disposed  to  be  bound  by  the  decisions 
of  Rome  than  of  Constantinople;  for  it  endorsed, 
by  a  formal  conciliar  act,  the  views  which  Charles 
and  the  Frankish  theologians  had  already  set  forth 
in  the  Caroline  Books. 

The  decisions  of  the  council  were  notified  by 
Charles,  or  at  least  in  his  name,  to  the  bishops  of 
his  own  dominions,  and  to  the  Spanish  bishops  and 
others  beyond  his  own  kingdom. 

The  decision  of  the  Council  of  Frankfort  by  no 
means  at  once  restored  peace  to  the  Church.  Other 
lesser  coimcils  repeated  the  condemnation  of  the 
Fathers  of  Frankfort ;  one  at  Friuli  (79G),  and  one 
at  Rome  (799).  The  controversy  continued  between 
Felix  and  Alcuin,  and  between  Elipand  and  Alcuin. 
Leidrad,  Ai'chbishop  of  Lyons,  Nefred,  Bishop  of 
Narbonne,  and  Benedict,  Abbot  of  Aniane,  were  sent 
into  the  district  which  had  been  infected  by  the 
Adoptionist  teaching,  to  preach  and  argue,  and 
reclaim  those  who  had  been  perverted;  and  it  is 
said  by  Alcuin  that,  in  the  course  of  two  such 
missionary  joui'neys,  they  made  twenty  thousand 


THE   ECCLESIASTICAL   WORK   OF  CHARLES.     333 

converts — ^bishops,  clergy,  and  laity.  Felix  was 
induced  to  appear  again  before  a  council  held  at 
Aix,  where  Alcuin  met  him  in  a  discussion  which 
lasted  six  days,  and  Felix  at  last  professed  himself 
convinced  by  his  adversaiy's  arguments.  But  his 
former  vacillations  told  against  him  now.  He  was 
not  permitted  to  return  to  his  diocese>  but  was 
committed  to  the  care  of  the  Ai'chbishop  of  Lyons ; 
and  ultimately  died  in  this  kind  of  exile,  leaving 
behind  him  papers  which  showed  that  it  had  not 
been  an  unnecessary  precaution. 

Another  very  important  theological  controversy 
of  the  reign  of  Charles  is  that  on  the  question  of 
the  procession  of  the  Holy  Ghost. 

The  Council  of  Toledo,  held  under  King  Reccared, 
A.D.  589,  at  w^hich  the  Visigothic  Church  of  Spain 
formally  abjm-ed  Arianism  and  adopted  the  ortho- 
dox faith,  put  forth  a  version  of  the  gi*eat  creed  of 
Nicsea,  in  which  they  had  interpolated  an  additional 
clause,  which  stated  that  the  Holy  Ghost  proceeded 
from  the  Father  "and  from  the  Son"  {Filioque). 
Under  what  influence  the  council  took  upon  itself 
to  make  an  addition  to  the  creed  of  the  universal 
Church  is  unkno^^^l.  It  is  probable  that  the  motive 
of  the  addition  was  to  make  a  stronger  protest 
against  the  Arian  denial  of  the  co-equal  Godhead 
of  the  Son.  The  Spanish  Church  naturally  took  a 
special  interest  in  the  addition  it  had  made  to  the 
symbol  of  Nicsea,  and  sustained  it  in  subsequent 
councils.     It  became  of  special  impoi'tance  in  the 


334)  CHARLEMAGNE, 


Adoptionist  controversy,  when  it  afforded  a  weapon 
drawn  out  of  their  own  armoury  against  the  Span- 
ish heresy.  The  Frankish  Church  seems  to  have 
early  adopted  it  from  their  Spanish  neighbours, 
since  at  the  Council  of  Gentilly  (a.d.  767),  under 
Pepin,  when  ambassadors  from  the  Greek  Emperor 
Constantine  Copronymus  were  present,  both  the 
question  of  images  and  this  question  of  thejilioque 
were  discussed,  as  points  of  difference  between  the 
two  Churches ;  but  the  details  of  the  proceedings  of 
that  council  have  not  come  down  to  us. 

The  question  was  brought  before  a  council  held 
at  Aix  in  A.D.  809,  in  the  form  of  a  complaint  that 
some  Frank  pilgrims  to  the  Holy  Land,  visiting  the 
famous  monastery  of  St.  Saba,  near  Jerusalem,  had 
been  accused  of  being  heretics  on  the  gi-ound  of  this 
interpolation  in  the  Catholic  Creed,  and  an  attempt 
had  been  made  to  drive  them  away  from  the 
monastery.  The  council  formally  approved  of  the 
addition  to  the  creed,  and  Charles  sent  two  bishops 
and  the  Abbot  of  Corbie  to  Rome,  to  request  the 
pope's  concurrence  in  the  decision.  Leo,  at  a  con- 
ference with  the  envoys,  expressed  his  agi-eement 
with  the  doctrine,  but  strongly  opposed  its  insertion 
into  the  creed.  And  it  is  said  that  he  caused  copies 
of  the  creed  in  its  genuine  form,  in  Greek  and  Latin, 
to  be  engraved  on  two  silver  shields,  and  set  up  in 
the  basilica  of  St.  Peter  as  a  protest  against  any 
alteration.  Notwithstanding  the  pope's  protest,  the 
addition  was  adopted  throughout  the  Frankish  Em- 
pire.   When  the  Emperor  Henry  V.  was  crowned  at 


THE  ECCLESIASTICAL  WORK  OF  CHARLES.     335 

Kome,  A.D.  1014,  he  induced  Pope  Benedict  VIII. 
to  allow  the  creed  with  the  Jilioque  to  be 
chanted  after  the  Gospel  at  High  Mass ;  so  it 
came  to  be  generally  used  in  Kome ;  and  at  length 
Pope  Nicholas  I.  (858-867)  insisted  on  its  adop- 
tion throughout  the  West.  At  a  later  period  the 
controversy  was  revived,  and  it  became  the  osten- 
sible ground  of  the  final  breach  (a.d.  1054)  be- 
tween the  Chm-ches  of  the  West  and  those  of  the 
East.*  The  growing  opinion  of  the  English  Church 
of  the  present  day  probably  is  that  Pope  Leo  III. 
was  in  the  right ;  that  though  the  doctrine  is  true, 
it  was  undesirable  to  insert  it  in  the  creed  of  the 
universal  Church  on  any  authority  less  than  that 
of  a  general  council. 

Two  curious  features  of  the  proceedings  at  Frank- 
fort ought  not  to  be  omitted.  Peter,  Bishop  of 
Verdun,  who  had  been  accused  of  participation  in 
the  conspiracy  of  Prince  Pepin,  was  aiTaigned  before 
the  council.  There  was  not  sufficient  proof  to  con- 
vict him,  and  he  was  allowed  to  prove  his  innocence 
if  he  could,  after  the  Teutonic  custom,  by  the  oaths 
of  conjurators — the  oaths  of  two  or  three  of  his 
brother  bishops,  or  of  his  metropoKtan  alone,  that 
they  believed  him  to  be  innocent.  But  they  all  de- 
clined to  give  this  testimony.  Then  he  offered  to 
clear  himself  by  another  Teutonic  custom,  the  ap- 
peal to  "  the  judgment  of  God  "  by  proxy.  We  are 
not  told  what  the  nature  of  the  ordeal  was,  but  his 

*  Mr.  Ffoulkes,  "  The  Church's  Creed  and  the  Crown's  Creed." 


336  CHARLEMAGNE. 


"  man  "  came  safely  through  it,  and  the  bishop  was 
acquitted. 

The  Duke  of  Bavaria,  dispossessed  and  sent  to 
Jumieges  six  years  before,  was  also  brought  before 
the  council,  and  made  to  confess  his  treason,  and  to 
recognize  the  justice  of  his  sentence,  to  suiTender 
for  himself  and  his  family  all  his  hereditary  rights, 
and  to  commend  his  children  to  the  mercy  of  the 
king.  We  can  hardly  doubt  that  this  painful  scene 
was  submitted  to  by  the  unhappy  duke  under  the 
coercion  of  threats  and  promises,  and  that  its  object 
was  to  extinguish  in  Bavaria  the  last  hopes  of  a 
recovery  of  its  autonomy.  He  was  sent  back  to  his 
cell,  and  this  is  the  last  time  he  or  any  of  his 
dynasty,  the  oldest  in  Gennany,  appear  on  the  stage 
of  history. 


(    337     ) 


CHAPTER    XXIV. 


THE    END. 


Policy  of  the  emperor — Growing  infirmities  of  Cliarles— He 
associates  Louis  with  himself  in  the  empire — Dies  a.d.  811 — 
His  burial — Character. 

The  accession  of  Charles  to  the  Imperial  dignity 
hardly  made  so  much  difference  to  himself  person- 
ally, or  to  his  empire,  as  we  might  have  been  dis- 
posed to  expect.  He  had  already  grown  gradually 
into  empire,  and  had  already  played  the  part  of 
emperor  so  long,  that  the  addition  of  the  title  was 
rather  a  recognition  of  existing  facts  than  the 
initiation  of  a  new  character  and  policy. 

AVe  have  seen,  indeed,  that  the  solemn  election  to 
empire  had,  in  his  own  mind,  and  in  that  of  Christen- 
dom, given  a  new  sanction  to  the  position  which 
he  had  won.  But  in  all  the  external  conduct  of  his 
personal  life,  and  of  his  court,  and  in  the  policy  of 
liis  reign,  it  made  very  little  practical  difference. 
He  did  not  remove  his  residence  from  the  banks  of 
the  Rhine;  he  did  not  introduce  a  new  etiquette 

z 


338  CHAELEMAGXE. 


into  his  court ;  he  did  not  disturb  the  organization 
of  his  dominions.  It  adds  much  to  our  conception 
of  the  powerful  character  of  the  man,  that  he  con- 
tinued to  the  end  to  be  the  simple,  straightforward 
Teuton  he  had  always  been. 

But  the  circumstances  of  his  realm  did  not  now 
demand  the  same  incessant  activity  from  him;  his 
increasing  age  made  him  more  disposed  to  leave  the 
hardships  of  war  to  his  lieutenants ;  and  the  formal 
revival  of  the  empire  of  the  West  in  his  person 
seems  to  have  suggested  to  him  that  the  remain- 
ing years  of  his  life  would  be  appropriately  spent 
in  promoting  civilization,  learning,  and  religion 
throughout  the  ncAvly  created  empire. 

Accordingly,  we  find  that  the  last  fourteen  years 
of  his  life  and  reign  are  those  in  which  he  was 
most  active  in  legislation.  He  did  not,  indeed, 
attempt  to  impose  an  Imperial  code  upon  the  whole 
of  his  subjects.  With  admirable  good  sense  he 
resisted  the  temptation  to  theorize,  and  contented 
himself  with  trying  to  improve  the  several  codes 
under  which  the  various  sections  of  his  subjects  had 
hitherto  lived.  The  Catholic  religion  formed  the 
great  bond  of  union  among  the  heterogeneous  ele- 
ments of  the  empire ;  and  his  steady  patronage  of 
the  authority  of  the  Eoman  See  was,  no  doubt, 
partly  due  to  his  sagacious  recognition  of  its 
political  value.  Learning  is  as  cosmopolitan  as 
Christianity,  and  in  encouraging  its  spread  among 
his  subjects  of  all  nations  and  all  classes,  he  also 
saw  clearly  that  he  was  strengthening  one  of  the 


THE  END.  339 


most  powerful  bonds  of  Imperial  union,  and  one  of 
the  most  powerful  agents  of  general  progress. 

Towards  the  end  of  this  vigorous  life,  of  this 
magnificent  career,  the  great  emperor  was  destined 
to  experience,  with  so  many  men  before  and  after 
him  who  have  reached  the  very  apex  of  earthly 
fortune,  the  short-livedness  of  human  prosperity. 
If  men  live  too  long  they  outlive  their  powers,  and 
their  over-ripe  fortunes  begin  to  decay. 

In  less  than  two  years  death  carried  away  out  of 
his  domestic  circle  his  sister  Gisela,  his  daughter 
Rothrada,  his  sons  the  two  Pepins — the  unhappy 
elder  in  his  cloister  exile,  the  promising  younger 
in  his  Italian  kingdom.  Lastly,  died  his  son  Charles, 
his  right  hand,  and  the  destined  heir  of  his  great- 
ness, and  Louis  alone  remained.  But  Louis,  accord- 
ing to  the  testimony  of  Alcuin,  and  according  to  all 
the  evidence  of  his  own  actions,  was  the  worthiest 
of  aU  the  sons  of  Charles,  and  upon  him  all  the 
hopes  of  the  emperor  and  of  the  empire  were  now 
concentrated. 

The  health  of  the  stalwart  Teuton  beean  to  gfive 
way,  as  a  result  of  half  a  century  of  hardships  and 
labours.  He  was  tortured  with  rheumatism,  which 
lamed  him  in  one  foot ;  he  was  attacked  with  fits 
of  fever.  While  bearing  up  bravely  against  increas- 
ing age  and  its  infirmities,  he  did  not  neglect  the 
warning  to  provide  for  the  succession  to  the  empire 
when  death  should  at  length  remove  him. 

In  the  year  a.d.  813,  in  the  month  of  August, 
Charles  summoned  all  the  gi*eat  men  of  the  empire 


340  CHARLEMAGNE. 


to  Aix,  and  with  their  concurrence  he  associated 
Louis  with  himself  in  the  Imperial  dignity.  In  a 
grand  ceremonial  in  the  basilica  at  Aix,  he  bade 
him  take  the  diadem  himself  from  the  altar  and 
place  it  on  his  own  head,  and  caused  him  to  be 
proclaimed  Emperor  and  Augustus.  We  note  the 
absence  of  any  religious  ceremonial  or  sanction; 
the  nomination  of  the  emperor,  and  the  concurrence 
of  the  magnates  of  the  empire,  were  Louis's  earthly 
titles  to  the  Imperial  throne ;  the  taking  the  crown 
from  the  altar  and  crowning  himself  symbolized 
that  he  received  it  "  by  the  gi'ace  of  God."  In  thus 
securing  the  succession  to  his  son,  the  old  emperor 
did  not  lay  down  his  CDipire.  On  the  contrary,  he 
sent  his  son  to  Aquitaine,  and  continued  his  reign 
as  heretofore.  Eginhard  tells  us  that,  in  spite  of 
his  age,  in  spite  of  his  growing  infirmities,  the 
old  Teuton  still  continued  through  the  autumn  his 
accustomed  exercise  of  hunting  in  the  forest  of 
Ardennes,  and  only  returned  in  November  to  pass 
the  winter  months  in  his  palace  at  Aix. 

We  may  take  this  opportunity  to  describe  the 
general  appearance  of  the  city  which  was  the  real 
capital  of  the  empire  of  Charles.  Sir  Emerson 
Tennant  thus  describes  its  general  situation  and 
appearance : — "  On  gaining  the  summit  of  a  long 
hill,  we  suddenly  looked  down  upon  the  turrets  and 
domes  of  the  venerable  and  Imperial  city  of 
Charlemagne,  in  the  basin  of  a  deep  woody  amphi- 
theatre, which  rises  round  it  on  all  sides,  covered 
with  forest  to  the  very  top.     No  situation  could  be 


THE  END.  341 

imagined  more  charming,  without  anything  very- 
picturesque  and  magnificent." 

He  also  describes  the  general  appearance  of  the 
ffreat  church  which  Charles  had  erected  there : — 
"The  Domkirche,  like  some  relic  from  the  sea, 
encrusted  with  shells  and  parasites,  is  scarcely  dis- 
cernible in  the  midst  of  the  coatings  of  modem 
buildings  with  which  it  is  shut  up  and  enveloped, 
a  confused  conglomeration  of  styles.  But  the 
central  dome,  the  nucleus  of  the  entire  building,  and 
that  portion  said  to  have  been  the  emperor's  tomb, 
still  stands,  erect  and  firm." 

In  January  Charles  was  seized  with  a  fever,  which 
confined  him  to  bed ;  but  it  is  characteristic  of  the 
man  that  he  despised  the  advice  of  the  physicians, 
and  would  use  no  other  than  his  accustomed  method 
of  self-treatment,  which  was  to  "  starve  "  the  fever. 
But  his  disease  became  complicated ;  pleurisy  set  in, 
and  still  persisting  in  his  own  mode  of  treatment,  he 
died  on  the  seventh  day  after  he  had  taken  to  his 
bed,  on  the  5th  of  February,  A.D.  814,  in  the  seventy- 
second  year  of  his  age,  and  the  forty-seventh  of  his 
reign. 

In  those  days  burial  followed  quickly  upon  death. 
But  the  burial  of  Charles  was  not  to  be  like  that 
of  ordinary  men.  A  great  and  beautifully  carved 
sarcophagus  of  classical  workmanship  was  lying 
empty  in  the  basilica  of  Aix,  but  they  did  not 
enclose  him  within  it.  In  the  crypt  beneath  the 
dome  of  his  great  basilica  they  placed  him ;  seated, 
as  in  life,  in  a  great  marble  chair ;  ornamented  with 


342  CHARLEMAGNE. 


bosses  of  gold,  clad  in  his  royal  robes,  with  crown 
on  head,  and  sceptre  in  hand,  and  the  good  sword 
"  Joyeuse "  girded  to  his  side;  the  pilgrim's  pouch, 
which  he  had  worn  in  life  in  his  pilgrimages  to 
Rome  hanging  from  his  girdle,  and  on  his  knees  a 
copy  of  the  Gospels.*  His  feet  only  rested  in  the 
carved  sarcophagus,  as  if  the  great  emperor  was 
not  to  be  laid  prone  and  enclosed  from  sight  like 
ordinary  mortals,  but  in  death  still  to  tread  death 
underfoot. 

On  the  stone  beneath  the  dome,  which  closed  the 
entrance  to  the  tomb,  was  carved  the  following 
epitaph : — 

"  Sub  hoc  conditorio  situm  est  corpus  Karoli  Magni  atque 
Obthodoxi   Imperatoris.     Qui    begnoi  Fbancobum   kobiliter 

AMPLIAVIT,  ET  PER  AXXOS  XLVH.  FELiaXER  REXIT.  DeCESSIT 
SEPTUAGEKABIUS,  AnXO  DoMIXI  ECCCXni.,  ISDITIONE  TH.,  V.  KaL. 
FEBR."t 

The  huge  black  flagstone  which  now  lies  under 
the  dome,  with  the  inscription  "Carolo  Magno," 
is  supposed  to  cover  the  entrance  to  the  tomb. 
Over  it  hangs  a  large  golden  candelabrum,  which 
the  Emperor  Barbarossa  gave  to  burn  above  the 
grave.    In  the  time  of  Barbaros.sa,  and  at  his  in- 

*  The  Emperor  Otho  III.  had  the  crypt  opened  two  hundred 
years  afterwards,  and  found  his  great  predecessor  as  described  in 
the  text. 

t  "  Beneath  this  tomb  lies  the  body  of  Charles  the  Great  and 
Orthodox  Emperor ;  who  gloriously  extended  the  kingdom  of  the 
Franks,  and  ruled  it  fortunately  for  forty-seven  years.  He  died 
in  the  seventieth  year  of  liis  age,  in  the  year  of  our  Lord  813,  the 
seventh  year  of  the  Indiction,  the  fifth  of  the  Kalends  of  February." 


THE  END.  343 

stance,  the  Church  enrolled  the  name  of  the  great 
Emperor  in  its  Kalendar  as  Saint  Charlemagne. 

Charles's  is  a  character  easily  estimated.  There 
■was  nothing  creative  in  his  genius.  The  lines 
on  which  he  worked  had  already  been  laid  down 
by  his  grandfather  and  his  father ;  he  had  only  to 
follow  them  out.  He  had  a  powerful,  straight- 
forward mind,  which  aj^plied  itself  successfully  to 
all  the  work  Avhich  lay  before  it.  He  was  a  great 
general,  a  great  statesman,  a  great  organizer, 
because  this  was  the  work  he  had  to  do.  His 
father  had  set  the  example  of  the  cultivation  of 
learning  as  a  part  of  statesmanship;  but  Charles 
had  a  thirst  for  knowledge,  and  a  love  of  literature, 
which  form  the  most  original  part  of  his  character. 
But  the  one  trait  which  above  all  strikes  the 
imagination,  and  stands  out  as  especially  charac- 
teristic, is  the  immense  energy  of  body  and  mind, 
which  made  itself  felt  all  over  his  vast  empire, 
in  every  department  of  its  aflfairs.  Not  sparing  of 
blood,  but  not  cruel.  Imperious  a  man  in  such  a 
position  almost  inevitably  becomes,  but  he  was  not 
tyrannical.  Originally  of  a  large,  frank,  kindly 
nature,  he  indulged  in  the  lax  domestic  morality 
which  had  been  the  custom  of  his  ancestors.  He 
was  a  man  of  immense  powers,  who  found  himself 
the  inheritor  of  a  great  task,  applied  himself  to 
it  with  all  his  might,  and  accomplished  it  suc- 
cessfully. 

The  empire  he  had  created  fell  to  pieces  almost 
immediately,  but  his  work  was  not  therefore  all 


844  CHARLEMAGNE. 


lost.  It  fell  to  pieces,  but  the  pieces  all  bore  the 
impress  of  Charles's  hand ;  they  did  not  fall  back 
into  barbarism,  they  advanced  into  civilization.  The 
pieces  of  Charles's  empire  became  the  nations  of 
mediaeval  and  modern  Europe. 

And  the  idea  of  the  empire  sui-vived,  in  a  modified 
form,  in  the  Holy  Roman  Empire  of  the  Middle 
Ages.  Napoleon  aimed  at  reviving  the  Empire  of 
Charlemagne  under  Gallic  instead  of  Teutonic 
leadership.  Prussia  has  succeeded  in  re-establishing 
such  an  Imperial  union  of  the  Germanic  nations. 
The  nations  of  Europe  still  need  some  international 
confederation — in  default  of  Imperial  organization 
— which  could  secure  international  peace,  leave 
the  energies  of  the  peoples  free  to  pursue  the  career 
of  internal  progress,  and  promote  the  general  pro- 
sperity and  happiness. 


815  ) 


CHROXOLOGY  OF  THE  EEIGN  OF  CHARLES. 

A.D. 

7i2.  Birth  of  Charles. 

769.  Charles  and  Carloman  succeed  to  the  kingdom. 

771.  Charles  alone. 

772.  Opening  of  the  Saxon  war;  destruction  of  the  Irmiusul. 
774.  Fall  of  Pavia ;  Charles  King  of  the  Lombards. 

778.  Spanish  expedition  ;  defeat  of  Roncevaux. 
782.  Alcuin  settles  at  Charles's  court. 

784-5.  The  great  winter  campaign,  in  -which  the  power  of  the 
Saxons  was  broken ;  submission  of  "Witikind. 

787.  Issue  of  the  great  chartulary  on  the  revival  of  learning. 

788.  Tassilo  deposed ;  Bavaria  incorporated  into  the  empire. 

791.  War  against  the  Huns ;  invasion  of  Pannonia. 

792,  The  conspiracy  of  Pepin  le  Bossu. 
794.  Council  of  Frankfort. 

796.  The  Huns  defeated,  and  the  "  Ring  "  taken. 

.  797.  End  of  the  Saxon  war ;  Saxony  incorporated. 

798.  The  Spanish  conquest  completed. 

800.  Charles  elected  emperor. 

806.  Louis  appointed  King  of  Aquitaine,  and  Pepin  King  of  Italy. 

813.  Charles  associates  Louis  in  the  empire. 

814.  Death  of  Charles. 


THE  EXD. 


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THE  CELTS.   By  the  Rev.  G.  F.  Maclear,  D.D.   With  Two  Maps. 

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THE  NOETHMEN.     By  the  above  author.     With  Map. 

THE  SLAVS.     By  the  above  author.    With  Map. 

TEE  CONTINENTAL  TEUTONS.  By  the  Very  Rev.  CiiARLEj 
Merivale,  D.D.,  D.C.L.,  Dean  of  Ely.     With  Map. 

DIOCESAN    HISTORIES. 

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England  and  Wales,  will  furnish,  it  is  expected,  a  perfect 
library  of  English  Ecclesiastical  Histor)'. 

CANTEEBUEY.  By  the  Rev.  R.  C.  Jenkins.  With  Map.  leap. 
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CHICHESTEE.  By  the  Rev.  W.  R.  W.  Stephens,  M.A.  With 
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DUEHAM.  By  the  Rev.  J.  L.  Low.  With  Map  and  Plan.  Fcap. 
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PETEEBOEOUGH.  By  the  Rev.  G.  A.  Toole,  M.A.  With  M.ip, 
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8ALISBUEY.  By  the  Rev.  W.  H,  Jones.  With  Map  and  Plan 
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PUBLICATIONS   OF   THE   SOCIETY. 


EARLY  CHRONICLERS   OF  EUROPE. 

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ENGLAND,      By  James  Gairdner,  author  of  "The  Life  and 
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FEANCE.     By  Gustave  Massox,   B.A.,   Univ.  Gallic,  Assistant 
Master  and  Librarian  of  Harrow  School,  &c. 


IHE  FATHERS   FOR   ENGLISH   READERS. 

A  Series  of  Monographs  on  the  Chief  Fathers  of  the  Church,  the 
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LEO  THE  GEEAT.     By  the  Rev.  Charles  Gore,  M.A, 

GEEGOEY  THE  GEEAT.     By  the  Rev.  J.  Barmby,  B.D. 

SAINT  AMBEOSE :  his  Life,  Times,  and  Teaching.  By  the  Rev. 
Robinson  Thornton,  D.D, 

SAINT  AUGUSTINE.     By  the  Rev.  E.  L.  Cutts,  B.A. 

SAINT  BASIL  THE  GEEAT.     By  the  Rev.  R.  T.  Smith,  B.D. 

SAINT  JEEOME.     By  the  Rev.  Edward  L.  Cutts,  B.A. 

SAINT  JOHN  OF  DAMASCUS.    By  the  Rev.  J.  H.  LvrroN,  j\LA. 

THE  APOSTOLIC  FATHEES.     By  the  Rev.  H.  S,  Holland. 

THE  DEFENDEES  OF  THE  FAITH  ;  or,  The  Christian  Apolo- 
gists of  the  Second  and  Third  Centuries,  By  the  R.ev.  Y, 
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THE  VENEEABLE  BEDE.     By  the  Rev.  G,  F,  Browne. 


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ANGLO-SAXON  BRITAIN.    By  Grant  Allen,  Esq.,  B.A.    With 
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THE  HOME  LIBRARY. 

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but  not  exclusively,  adapted  for  Sunday  Reading. 

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GEEAT  ENGLISH  CHURCHMEN ;  or.  Famous  Names  in  English 

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Adams. 
MILITARY  RELIGIOUS  ORDERS  OF  THE  MIDDLE  AGES;  the 

Hospitallers,  the  Templars,  the  Teutonic  Knights,  and  others. 

By  the  Rev.  F.  C.  Woodhouse,  INI.  A. 
NARCISSUS :  a  Tale  of  Early  Christian  Times.     By  the  Rev.  W, 

Boyd  Carpenter,  M.A. 
SKETCHES  OF  THE  WOMEN  OF  CHRISTENDOM.     Dedicated  to 

the  Women  of  India.     By  the  author  of  "The  Chronicles  of 

the  Schonberg-Cotta  Family." 
THE  CHURCHMAN'S  LIFE  OF  WESLEY.   By  R.  Denny  Urlin, 

Esq.,  F.S. S. 
THE  HOUSE  OF  GOD  THE  HOME  OF  MAN.     By  the  Rev.  Canon 

Jelf. 
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brated Christians.     Edited  by  the  late  Rev.  T.  Erskine. 
THE  NORTH-AFRICAN  CHURCH.     By  the  Rev.  Julius  Lloyd, 

M.  A.     With  Map. 
BLACK  AND  WHITE.     Mission  Stories.     By  H.  A.  FoRDE. 
CONSTANTINE  THE   GREAT.     The   Union   of  the   Church   and 

State.     By  the  Rev.  E.  L.  Cutts,  B.A. 
THE  LIFE  OF  THE  SOUL  IN  THE  WORLD :  its  Nature,  Needs, 

Dangers,  Sorrows,  Aids,  and  Joys.    By  the  Rev.  F.  C.  Wood- 
house,  M.A. 


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CHEISTIANS  TINDEE  THE  CEESCENT  IN  ASIA.  By  the 
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Church  Histor)-,"  etc.  With  numerous  Illustrations. 
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CHTTBCH  HISTORY  IN  ENGLAND,  from  the  Earliest  Times 
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CHUECH  HISTOEY  (SKETCHES  OF),  from  the  First  Century 
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DAILY     EEADINGS     FOE    A    YEAE.      By    Elizabeth 

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HISTOEY  OF  THE  ENGLISH  CHUECH.  In  Short  Biogra- 
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HISTOEY  OF  THE  JEWISH  NATION  (A),  from  the  Earliest 
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LAND  OF  ISEAEL  (THE),  a  Journal  of  Travel  in  Palestine, 
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NAREATIVE  OF  A  MODEEN  PILGEIMAGE  through 
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^f^\j:jt> 


6  PUBLICATIONS   OF   THE   SOCIETY. 

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PALEY'S  HOR^  PATILIN.E.  A  New  Edition,  with  Notes, 
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D.  D. ,  Dean  of  Chester.     Post  8vo cloth  boards    3    o 

PLAIN  REASONS  AGAINST  JOINING  THE  CHURCH  OF 
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Revised  and  enlarged  edition.     Post  8vo cloth  boards     i     o 

SCENES  IN  THE  EAST.  Consisting  of  Twelve  Coloured 
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the  Rev.  Canon  Tristram,  author  of  "Bible  Places,"  etc. 

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SINAI  AND  JERUSALEM ;  or.  Scenes  from  Bible  Lands. 
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TURNING-POINTS  OF  ENGLISH  CHURCH  HISTORY.    By 

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TURNING-POINTS    OF    GENERAL    CHURCH    HISTORY. 

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VENTURES  OF  FAITH;  or.  Deeds  of  Christian  Heroes.  By 
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